


Too busy lying to myself (to see your color)

by lilucath



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Homophobic Language, Multi, Underage Drinking, half drowning (trigger), hits of jason/billy if you squint rl hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-10-20 18:06:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 47,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10667979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilucath/pseuds/lilucath
Summary: Summary: In a world where you get an impression of your soulmate at a certain age, Trini tries to navigate life and what it means that she saw a pink pterodactyl flying through the sky for her impression.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sort of based on the prompt: You get an ‘impression’ of your soulmate when you turn 18 or something but all I got was a strong smell of bananas or an overwhelming feeling that Thatcher was a good prime minister or an image in my mind of a fucking unicorn.

Trini grew up in a society where soulmates were a normal thing. Between the ages of 12 and 16 most people would get an impression of your soulmate. A moment where you would get a glimpse into who they were, into their life. Sometimes those impressions were a sound like a few notes of a song, other times it was a smell like the strong smell of bananas, sometimes it was an image like their face or a car and sometimes it was just a feeling like that Thatcher was a good prime minister and in rare cases it was a mixture out of everything.

  
Most of the impressions made little to no sense. And the number of people who found their soulmate through the impression was small. Sometimes people got no soulmate-impression and in other cases they got an impression, knew who it was about and still chose someone else to be with.

  
The science behind soulmate-impressions wasn't something Trini really liked to think about.  
On the contrary, Trini had been scared of getting her impression ever since she figured out that she didn't like boys. Her parents never seemed to get tired of telling how excited they were for her to get to know a piece of the boy she was destined to be with. Getting an impression about a girl would only make the fear of the disappointed looks on her parents’ faces real.

  
The moment she feared came a month before her 15th birthday. The day had started normal and she had gotten through the first half of the school day without any incidents, but during lunch she started to feel weird and couldn't bring herself to eat anything. When she tried to stand up to return her tray, her knees gave out underneath her and she had to sit down again. Her hands had started to shake and, according to one of her friends she had been eating with, her cheeks had gotten a deep red color. She could feel her heart rate speed up as her friends steadied her and helped her towards the infirmary. They all knew the signs of an incoming soulmate-impression and that many people fainted or had emotional outbursts caused by the hormones being out of whack.

Her friends had all gotten their impressions already. One of them had seen the face of a boy laughing at her, another had seen a chocolate pudding sprayed on the floor of a supermarket aisle, one had seen a tribal tattoo on a toned arm of a man and the last of their group had just smelled a mixture out of wet dog and ocean.

  
The nurse immediately took Trini to a bed as her friends explained the situation to her and made her sit down on it to minimize the danger of her falling when it finally came.

She then shooed Trini's friends out of the nurses’ office to get them to go back to class and brought Trini a glass of water which she placed on the bedside table.  
Just as the woman turned around again everything went black in front of Trini's eyes. A noise started to ring in her ears which sounded like it came from far, far away and yet close. The loud echo of metal banging against metal made her ears hurt. Then her vision started to brighten up again but everything was blurry around her and she could only make out a few spots of colors around her. Green, grey, brown. A loud outcry which sounded like it came from above her head made her look up and she saw a dinosaur, a pterodactyl she later found out, flying through the sky. She could see its muscles move as it soared on its wings through the sky. A bright, pink aura surrounded the animal and as it opened its beak to let out a scream so loud Trini had to put her hands over her ears, everything went black again. The noises faded out and were replaced by a soft voice calling her name.  
  
Slowly the nurses’ office appeared around her again with the nurse hovering over her, a mixture out of curiosity and worry on her face. Trini now noticed that she was no longer on the side of the bed but on the floor. She must have slipped from the bed and the more the world around her became clear again the more a spot on her butt started to hurt.

“You okay, kiddo?” Deep laughter lines next to the nurse's eyes started to appear as the woman gave her an understanding smile as Trini nodded as response and she helped her up from the floor.  
Her knees still felt weak and she crawled back on the bed and gladly accepted the glass of water the nurse pushed into her hands. Her throat burned like she had inhaled too much smoke and suddenly she felt incredibly tired.

 

The nurse started to chatter next to her. “I hope your impression was nice, you know. And that you only tell it to people you feel comfortable with. Don't let anyone talk you into talking about it. This impression, it's yours. And yours alone. Don't let anyone take it from you.” The woman had already started to walk back to her desk again when she turned around again. “I am not making you go back to class for the rest of the day, honey. These impressions take a toll on the body and no one can tell me that neglecting their health is more important than class. I am just gonna keep you here for a bit, so you can rest and I will speak to your teachers that you didn't feel good. You won't have to worry about your parents getting a call from the school about missing in class. You just rest, honey. I am gonna be back in a bit.”  
Trini was too tired to answer the woman as she stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her. Instead she sunk down on a slightly too hard pillow and as she closed her eyes she could see the dinosaur again, flying in circles above her head.

She slept until the nurse woke her once the bell had rung ending the last class of the day and sleep was still clinging to her as she got home. Her mother as usual bombarded her with questions, too fast to answer a single one, so Trini just slipped away. Her eyes too heavy to keep open much longer she dragged herself to her bed and slept until her mother woke her for school the next day, yells from her brothers in the background. A glorious bruise had formed where her butt had hit the floor.

 

The next day at school her friends bombarded her with questions about the impression and as she told them what she had experienced, they all excitingly started to make up stories on who this mystery man could be. Trini's insides twisted painfully every time they assumed her soulmate to be male. She knew exactly that her impression was about a girl, but she didn't have the courage to tell them. It scared her. Their possible reactions, her parents reactions. So she kept the truth to herself and suffered in silence.  
The image of the pink dinosaur she carried with her from that moment on. Always on the back of her mind, she often caught herself drawing the dinosaurs and other pink things on the sides of her notebooks and papers.

 

She had managed to keep the impression from her parents, her mother especially, for a few weeks. Until the day she forgot an exercise book on the kitchen table and when she came into the room to grab it, her mother held it in between her hands. Her face was twisted in an icy, angry expression and wordlessly she placed the opened exercise book on the table and pushed it towards Trini.

“What is that?” Her voice was trembling with anger.

“Just some drawing.”

“It's pink.” Her mother shook her head in disbelief. “The same daughter that used to break the pink pencil just so I wouldn't be able to make her take it with her, has pink drawings in her notebook.”

“Yes?” Trini tried. “People change.”

“You had your impression, hadn't you?” She suddenly couldn't move anymore and her mouth was too dry to speak.“And you didn't tell us. Because it was pink? Because it was about a... a girl?” Her mother spat the words at her head. Her disappointment in Trini clearly audible.

Trini had never figured out how her mother came to that conclusion that fast, she figured it had been motherly intuition.

“This.. is sick. I won't have this sort of.. behavior in my house. Get out of my sight!”

Trini gladly obliged. Everything she had feared had just blown up in her face.  
She ran to her room, slammed the door shut behind her and buried her face in her pillow. Tears staining the fabric as she cried.

A while later she heard how her father entered the house and how they immediately started to fight. Through the closed door she could only hear their conversation muffled but at first it sounded like her dad was still trying to calm her mother down. She yelled something about Trini being wrong in the head, how she had always behaved too much like a boy. How she never liked pink and now she did. Her father then said something too quiet for her to understand but then her mother said something that would stick with Trini for years. _This isn't what I wanted for our daughter. I wanted her to be normal, to marry a nice boy and live a happy normal life, and not be this.. abomination._

 

The next day when Trini came home from school her mother had searched through her entire room and all the pink clothes she had tried to get Trini to wear over the years had disappeared from the depth of the closet where she had stuffed them.

The next week they moved to another state.

 

 

Trini kept to herself from that on in the new town. It wasn't difficult, being the new girl automatically kept people at an arm’s length away, but even the ones who tried to get to know her, Trini pushed away.  
Until she met a girl with a flashy smile and wild hair, who always liked to wear a pink jacket. Somehow the girl managed to break through the walls Trini was building around her and became something to her. Trini wasn't even sure if they could be called friends, but nonetheless she hid her from her parents. She lied to her parents about their meetings by telling them she was going to the library or something similar and she lied to the girl about why she never invited her home.  
  
It all ended when Trini had to stay home one day with a migraine and her friend came by on her own to drop off homework for her. Trini had heard the doorbell ring and was then called by her mother to join her. She stood in the hallway, a sour and disappointed expression on her face as Trini's friend stepped through the door. Wearing her pink jacket as usual she handed Trini the books and papers she had been holding, gave both of them a small smile before she said her goodbyes and disappeared out the entrance.  
Trini never saw her again, the next day they left town and her mother never allowed her to look back.

 

The moment they left the city limits back then Trini made a pact with herself to forbid her from thinking about her impression. She tried to avoid everything pink like the plague, but on their own her eyes were pulled in by anything pink. But anger and hate for her mother threatened to bubble up inside her every time a girl wearing pink looked her way.  
The only thing Trini allowed herself to look at were her brothers’ dinosaur figures. She couldn't help but stare when her little brother pretended that the pterodactyl figure was flying through the air. The shrill screams he let out didn't help her with forgetting the screams of her impression she still heard on occasion. Somehow she managed to hide her staring at the figure from her mother but her youngest brother noticed and gave the figure to her just before they moved for the second time.  
They only stayed there for a few months before her dad got a new job offer, which made them move again. But still she had overheard her mother telling him, that Trini had been in this town for too long and the risk of her meeting any potential-. The rest of the sentence had been cut off by her mother closing the door, but she could imagine how her mother had ended that sentence.

 

Their next town had the name Angel Grove and turned out to be a nice little city at the coast with plenty of abandoned mining land on which Trini fled every time she got the chance.  
  
Plenty of girls liked and wore pink and Trini tried to stay away from them as hard aspossible, but one of them was Kimberly Hart and made it particularly difficult not to notice her.  
Trini might have stared at the back of her head during biology on occasion. But she definitely didn't wait after each lesson for Kim to get up first so she could watch her legs as she walked out of the classroom. And she certainly had never walked into people or trashcans when Kim had decided to wear a very tight tank top again together with her favorite pink halter top that showed off her very toned shoulder muscles.

  
They stayed in Angel Grove longer than in any town before, even though after a few months her mother had tried to talk her dad into moving again. But he had insisted that he wanted to stay here. Her father liked the town, their neighbors and his coworkers and her brothers had lot of friends here. Trini heard a lot of: _June, you need to stop running. Everything will work out alright. Trini is gonna be alright._ But she was thankful that they stayed.  
  
She liked the quiet hours out in the mines, where she could stare into the far and flee from her life without having her mother breathe down her neck.  
Trini tolerated the weird guy always sneaking around the train tracks and that Billy kid that disappeared in the mine shafts only to reappear carrying rocks or other dirty things.

In the mines she was a no one and she didn't have to be anyone. Here she could just fade into the background, practicing material art moves on top of rock piles to clear her head to push her impression so far into the back of her mind that she might forget about it one day.  
The longer they stayed in Angel Grove, the better she got at forgetting and the plastic dinosaur still hidden in the crack of her bed stayed untouched.

 

Without knowing it yet, everything changed for Trini at the end of March when the entire school and town were thrown in turmoil by what everyone later liked to call: _The Jason Scott incident._  
The football star of her school being arrested and kicked out of the team for putting a cow in the schools locker-room and creating a car accident which destroyed his knee and any chance he had on a professional football career made the news and everyone in town went nuts over it. They all seemed to have their own bad opinion from now on about the boy. Trini herself didn't know Jason personally and if the school hadn't paraded him around before the incident, she probably wouldn't have even known of him. Being busy with trying to stay invisible all day long made it quite difficult to stay on top of the gossip that was going around in school and town.

But when a few days later Kimberly Hart fell from grace, the whispers even reached her. Trini had been hiding in the bleachers, when a fuming Kimberly had punched the dude she had been seeing according to rumors. She had to admit it was a nice hook that made the boy start to groan and as he crouched together, holding his jaw, spitting blood on the lawn, Kimberly walked away, seemingly still boiling over with anger by the way she stomped her feet. Then the rumors started about what had happened between them and about private pictures of Kimberly's best friend.

 

 

Saturday evening two weeks later, she stood as usual on her favorite hill in the gold mines practicing some martial arts moves until a loud explosion coming from the mine shafts alarmed her. Since the mines had been abandoned long ago, she figured one of the other kids strolling around here had caused it and quickly she started to run to the entrances of the mines. Here she found the crazy train boy, Jason Scott, Kimberly Hart, with much shorter hair than usual and Billy Cranston.

 

The rocks underneath her collapsed and what followed was a series of unexpected life changing events.

Behind the collapsed rocks they found a wall made of glass with coins embedded in the material. Under protest the train guy hacked them out of the wall and before they knew what happened, they were being chased by security and Trini ran with Kimberly through the mine-area until they found the van from the boys and were pulled inside. Then they were hit by a train and the next thing Trini remembered was walking up in her own bed almost more than a day later, with no memory how she got there and as she got up, she ripped off and squished her door handle with one hand.

  
The next Monday after school she hurried back to the glass wall in the mines, but the train dude was already there hitting on the wall like a maniac, so she stayed out of sight in the shadows.

  
A while later the three others appeared, and to flee from them she was running up a hill way too fast for a normal human being. She was soon caught up by Kimberly who asked her to _just talk to her_ and looked at here with those damn doe-eyes that she almost considered it. But then the boys caught up and her flight instinct kick in again and without thinking much about it she jumped over a cliff.  
Unfortunately crazy train guy followed her and made the others do the same. When Billy fell down the cliff and the other boys jumped after him she was once again taken by surprise by Kimberly, who used her moment of hesitation and politeness to pull her down the cliff with her.  
  
If Trini's day couldn't have gotten any weirder, they found a spaceship buried under ground and were being told that they were superheroes.  
When they had left the ship, the others finally realized that they didn't know who she was, but she didn't care about it much. Still she had to confess that it did sting that Kimberly didn't even know who she was, but what did she expect from the girl who was normally running in the higher circle not paying any attention to the rest of the school.  
Her mother decided to be extra annoying when she got home a while later, by bombarding her with questions the moment she sat down at the dinner table.

 

How she had let herself be talked into coming back to train to become a Power Ranger Trini couldn't understand. But under the supervision of a small robot they all got their asses kicked by rock-monster-holograms which turned out to be not just a computer game. Fortunately the bruises she got from the other Rangers and the animated putties all disappeared before she got home at night and didn't give her mother another reason to freak out.

 

The following week they mostly ignored each other during school, except for the occasional nod in the hallway and when Trini now looked at the back of Kimberly's head sometimes the girl looked back.

 

After an especially hard and discouraging day of training Kim had somehow talked her into going to Krispy Kreme with her and when Trini claimed the last piece of their shared doughnut Kim decided to fight her for it. Their new quick reflexes turned the fight into something with seemingly too many arms moving too fast for a normal human being, but then Kim laughed at her and she couldn't help but chuckle. Trini couldn't remember when she had felt as much as ease around someone else as she felt in that moment with Kimberly.

 

The day Alpha showed them their Zords, Trini stood fascinated by her yellow sable-tooth tiger-Zord and admired the grey steel and the shimmering yellow and how it still looked majestic even in the darkness of the cave.  
  
When Billy morphed in front of them after Zack's stunt with the Zord and his fight with Jason, and they stayed on the mountain for the night, Trini for the first time started to believe that all this fighting and training had a reason. It wasn't just about being Power Rangers and saving the world from Rita. No, the other four people standing around the fire made her feel welcomed and not like the outsider for once.  
  
Zack had suggested that they should tell the others about themselves and when Kimberly didn't share why she was in detention Trini could see pain in her eyes and guilt and fear. She didn't mind that she didn't tell them, Trini had a lot of things she wasn't ready to tell the others, but something in Kim's expression made her feel like the girl did want to trust them about everything, just not tonight.  
  
She stuck to what was safe. How she was always the new girl, because her family always moved around. When Zack figured out that the reason for the moves were, how he called it _girlfriend-trouble_ it was already more than Trini had wanted to share, but then the words just bubbled out of her.  
  
It felt freeing telling them about her family and their need for labels for everything and how she didn't live the life they had wanted for them.  
She wanted to believe Billy, when he told her she was with them now, but her defensive and cold side made an appearance again and she could see the hurtin their eyes when she asked if it would still be like this when all this would be over.

 

That night Rita attacked her in her bedroom and they went to the docks and Billy died a little bit, but came back and they finally morphed. For the first time in her life, even with Rita threatening her world, Trini felt like she had a place where she fit in. She felt good in her armor; strong, almost invincible.

  
When she looked at the others in their armors she could feel them too, they were now a part of her.  
  
Looking at Kim in her pink suit made her feel slightly dizzy, but she pushed it out of her mind, blaming it on her fear for the color.

  
She couldn't spend more time thinking about it, because then they had to fight rock monsters and when they realized that they had been too late to stop Rita from creating Goldar their discourage only lasted for a moment.  
  
As soon as they were all strapped into their Zords she could feel new strength follow through her. It felt natural to her. The way her body fitted into the seat and how her hands found grip on the controls.  
  
She stirred her Zord over the field, the others running next to her. But then Kim flew over them in her pterodactyl-Zord and Trini felt like she had been hit by a ton of bricks. Her impression flickered in front of her eyes like the end of a film role in a projector, revealing the similarities between Kim flying above her and the pterodactyl in her impression all those years ago.  
  
It had always been there, Trini could kick herself for not noticing sooner. Her jaw fell open and she wasn't sure if her heart was speeding this fast from the fight she was about to enter or the fact that she had found _her_.

 

Only the sound of Kim talking to them in her ear piece made her snap out of her train of thought. “Guys. Our town. She's destroying it. “  
  
This brought her focus back on what was important at the moment. Destroying Rita, saving Angel Grove and the town and probably not die while doing so. Something rose inside her, threatening to make her chest burst. Fear for her friends and her family. Anger towards Rita. Determination to do the one thing they had been told to do.  
Pure panic that she might lose Kim, now that she had finally found her, spread through her as Kim told them she would hold off Rita, but Trini couldn't let her go, so she followed Kim towards Goldar.

 

When Goldar pushed them into the hole, all Trini could think about were her friends. She was ready to die for them. She felt their presence, the metal of their Zords grating against hers and the only thought on her mind was that if this was it. They had made it worth it.

 

 

After their fight for the crystal, after Jason had Trini made Rita slap into space and they had won they returned to the caves. None of them could tell how it happened but their Zords had separated again when they stepped out of their cockpits. They shed their armors and just fell into each other’s arms. Trini was pressed tight against Jason’s chest, Kimberly in one arm as Zack rumbled up her hair and Billy was pushed against her side by Jason.

 

The shedding of their armor revealed some glorious bruises on every one of them. Skin-tight armor could only protect them from rock- and gold monsters to a certain amount.

  
One of their mobile phones started to ring ripping them from their victorious moment and bringing them back into the real world.

  
It was Billy's mother calling; wanting to know where her son was and suddenly Trini remembered her own family.  
  
She shared a look with Kim who seemed to be starting to worry about her parents as well.  
In the next second both girls started to run. They made their way back out of the caves and the water.  
  
Once they stood on top of the cliff again, Kim wordlessly took a hold of Trini's hand. She could see the worry in her friends’ eyes as they descended down the mountain towards their town.  
  
Even from afar they could see the countless pillars of smoke that were still rising from a few buildings, sirens were blaring and the closer they got the more crying, shocked people they met.  
  
Within the city limits they had to slow their running speed down to a normal human tempo, but Trini could hear a voice in her head telling her to just screw everything. She had to see if her family was okay.

 

When they arrived at the intersection where they had to separate to get to their respective houses, Kimberly stopped dead in her tracks.  
  
“I don't know what I'll do, if something happened to them.” Kim's voice was shaking and Trini could feel that her entire body was shaking by the way her hand clenched in hers.

  
“Kim.”, she whispered. Her name seemed impossible to speak out loud, but Trini knew that she had to be there for her friend and get over herself. Ignore the space she had wanted to get between them because of her soulmate-impression. “Look at me.”

  
Only slowly the girl turned towards her and the worry and pain in her expression almost broke Trini's heart.

  
“They will be alright.” Without much thought she cupped Kim's cheek, which made the taller girl to close her eyes and Trini could see that she was fighting the tears.

  
As she finally opened her eyes again, tears still glistening in their corners, a small smirk appeared on her lips. “I'm really glad I pulled you down those cliffs with me the other day.”

  
Trini let out a snort. They were on their way to check if their families had been hurt or worse in Rita's attack and that was what Kim took from her attempt to calm her down. “I'm really glad you pulled me down with you too.”, she answered in all honesty and gave Kim one of her rare smiles.

  
The next thing Trini knew was Kim pulling her into a bone-crushing hug too quick for her to react. “Call me later.” She gave her a quick kiss on her cheek and released Trini from her grip. “Please.”

  
Then Kim started to run in the direction of her home, leaving behind a very stunned Trini, who couldn't stop her hand from hovering over the spot where Kim's lips had just touched her skin until a loud yell ripped her away from her spinning mind.

 

Trini found her family in her house. They had been at breakfast when the first eruptions caused by Goldar had shaken their house and had hidden until they had heard someone outside yelling that the attack was over. Their house had been far enough out of the city middle to be spared from everything.

  
The moment Trini stepped through the front door, calling their names, she was engulfed by a hug from her mother and as Trini wrapped her arms around her she tried to remember when they had hugged last. She couldn't remember, but it felt nice.

“Trini. I was so worried. We were all so worried.” Her mother took her face in between both hands and looked at her with so much worry that Trini didn't doubt what she was saying for a second. “Where have you been? We tried to call you, but you.. you didn't pick up. We were so worried.”

Then she pulled her close again and, in the next second her father had wrapped her arms around them and her brothers clung to her legs.  
Their occasional sniffs told her that they had been crying and Trini peeled herself out of her parents’ arms to fall on her knees and embraced her brothers. As she felt their small arms wrap around her, Trini could feel hot tears from her own eyes roll down her cheeks. She was so grateful for her family being alright and that the fight had ended with them winning, when it could have easily have been the other way around with Rita getting the crystal and wiping out life on earth.

“Where were you? What happened?” Her father and her mother had joined them on the floor, lying in each other’s arms, watching their children with tears in their eyes.

Trini knew she had to lie. “I was with friends. We were.. hiking out of town, when we heard all this screaming and saw something big and golden standing in the town, destroying buildings.

“You have friends?”

“June, not important right now.” Her father said with a side glare towards his wife. “All that matters is that we are all okay.” He gestured towards Trini for her to come into his opened arms and Trini gladly crawled towards him.

 

All the families from her friends were alright, but the following days the extent of the attack could be seen. A lot of the houses in the middle of the town where Goldar had come through had been destroyed completely or had to be demolished because their structure was damaged too badly. People, who lost their homes, were accommodated to the gym of the school or stayed with friends or family. The number of casualties was small, because of the quick intervention of the Rangers and the fact that Rita and her Golden boy had concentrated on finding the Crystal and not on killing as many people as possible.  
  
Many of the neighboring cities offered their help in the reconstruction of Angel Grove, by sending construction companies or financial help. And the people in their town bonded together helping each other as much as possible.

 

Somehow Trini's mother had calmed down after the attack a bit and allowed Trini to breathe more at home. She didn't question everything Trini did anymore and stopped looking at her like she had done something wrong. Trini figured it was because of relief that they were all okay.  
  
Her parents did ask her if they could meet her friends, but Trini wasn't ready for that yet. She had hope that her father would not allow her mother to make them move again, but she couldn't risk it.

 

She had to think about Kim and her soulmate-impression a lot the following days. The rangers spend a lot of time together helping out around town. But with each day her fear for what it all meant grew. She watched her friends interact, watched them laugh and joke, talk and just be.  
  
  
Revealing her soulmate-impression to the others would most likely end in their group splitting and Trini knew she couldn't stand the thought of losing any of them. So she decided to keep it to herself for now. Even if that meant being a bit colder towards Kim. She hated seeing the confused and hurt expression on the girl's face when she flinched under her touches, but Trini swallowed the guilt and hoped Kim wouldn't take it personally.

The next week the school resumed again, since it hadn't been damaged and the principal and the mayor both agreed that it couldn't do any harm to give the students just a little bit of normality.

By monday morning the hallways of their school were flooded again with pupils, all busy looking at videos of the ranger's fight with Rita, speculating about their identities. And no one took notice of the five of them, how they no longer ignored each other, how they sat with each other during lunch and how they seemingly didn't care about the Power Rangers at all.  
  
The attack on their town seemed to have shifted the importance of things and brought some things into perspective. Jason and Kim were no longer look at with evil side eyes at all time and the presence of the other three hanging out with the former King and Queen B of their school wasn't spoken about a lot.

Much to everyone’s displeasure detention was continued on Saturdays, but because the teacher didn't pay much attention, Trini and Zack joined the other three in their suffering. Detention still meant that they couldn't talk much, but they passed around notes and looks and it made the few hours of silence and homework worth it.  
For Trini who hadn't had any really good friends in the past years it was certainly something to get used to. To having people ask her about her day and her family. Who talked to her on their own and who didn't mind that she was a quiet person who made snarky comments from time to time.

 

After detention the five of them hung out on the empty parking lot. Trini and Jason were sitting on the back of this truck, which he and Billy had fixed up again. The dents were quickly pulled out with their new strength, the glass parts were fixed up in a shop and with Billy's knowhow about the electronic the car was soon running and street-legal again.  
While Zack and Kim were doing a handstand-race, Billy was currently telling them that he had been going through the attic of his house and had found his father's old tent. He now desperately wanted to try it out.

“We should all go camping together. Just the five us. Spending some time together not in school or the ship. But only if everyone wants to.” Billy seemed very excited and Trini opened her mouth to answer him, but in that moment Kim's tank top slipped down, revealing the muscles of her stomach. Trini couldn't help but stare mesmerized at the way they flexed and moved as Kim and Zack walked by them.

“Trini?” Only Jason poking her in the side with his elbow and his and Billy's expecting face made her look away.

“Huh? Yes, sure sounds good.” She nodded and let her hair fall into her face, trying to hide the blush that was currently creeping on her cheeks from having been caught staring.

“Ha.” Kim's voice to their left made her look through the strand of her hair and she saw how the girl stood on one arm, while she pushed Zack with the other trying to get him to fall.

As she poked him in his armpit the boy collapsed and Kim quickly brought her hand back on the ground to stabilize herself, walk the last bit of racing track the two had agreed on and then gracefully returned into a normal standing position.

“I win.”

“Cause you cheated.” Zack pouted from his spot on the ground and linked his arms in a very theatrical way.

“We never set any rules.” With laughter she offered him her hand which he gladly accepted.

“You guys?” Jason waved them over.

“What's up?” With a swift motion Zack jumped on the back of the track, half squishing Trini by letting himself fall down to sit next to her.

One arm now lying around Trini's shoulders Zack looked at Jason with an awaiting expression, while Kim stepped next to Billy and finally fixed her shirt, making it a bit easier for Trini to breathe.

“I found a tent in the attic. And it was all dusty, but my mum says it still all good. And now I really wanna go camping. Like when I was eight and we drove to another state and my father and I went into this cave and found some old guns. But like.. we don't have to go into caves. Or find guns. Just camping, if you guys want to.” He was talking so fast that Billy almost choked on his words, and Jason had to remind him to slow down.

“Sounds like good idea. And I am quite certain that my family still has a tent somewhere, which we could probably borrow, so we don't all have to be crammed into one tent.” Kim scratched her head while gently smiling at Billy.

“I don't know.” Next to her Zack shifted in his seat, the expression on his face revealing that was quite conflicted. “I don't want to leave my mom alone for long.”

“Maybe we can just go a few miles deep into the forest that starts after the trailer park?” Jason proposed. “That way you don't have it far and can easily run back, if you need to. I know a great spot to set up camp at a lake there. And we don't have to go for long.”

“Yes, that could work.” he nodded and a huge smile appeared on his face.

At the mention of Zack's mom Trini remembered her own parents. “I am actually not sure if my parents will let me go.”

“Why?” Kim asked.

“Because they don't know any of you and are not the most trusting people.”

“But at the least the first part we can fix, Trini. We just have to meet them.” Billy smiled at her.

There it was again. The fear of having to leave town, because her mother didn't like who she was spending her time with. “I don't know.”

“Come on. They can't be that bad.” Jason tried. “We can't be that bad.” The rest of her friends nodded in agreement.

Something in her friends’ faces made something bubble up inside Trini. The will to fight. Her mother was no longer getting her out of this town without resistance. Not after Trini had finally real friends and found her soulmate. Even if she was only hopelessly pining after said soulmate since she had decided not to act on it. For now.

“Okay fine.” Trini agreed with hesitation. “I will talk to my parents, if I can invite you guys over soon. Just.. ”She knew that she had to add it, even if it might sounded insane. “Just don't wear anything pink. Please. Especially Kim.”

The confused expression of the faces of her friends told her that she had been right about them thinking she was crazy.

“Why?” Kim asked, one eyebrow arched.

“It's a long story.. and..” Right when Trini tried to find something to tell them other than the truth, Jason's father pulled onto the parking lot turning their attention away from her. She let out a sigh of relief and decided that she would disappear before anyone could think about asking her again.

“I'll text you later when I've asked my parents.” Quickly she shouldered her backpack and started to jog away while they were still biding Jason farewell.

Trini could hear all of them mumbling a “Bye.”, but as she turned a corner she put on her headphones and instead of going home straight away she ran towards the mines to try to get some time to think.

  
 

That night when Trini got home, she found her parents in the kitchen, preparing dinner. Her brothers were playing in the next room, talking about which Ranger they would like to be again and Trini couldn't stop the soft smile that crept on her face every time they did that. She enjoyed the feelings of being sort of a hero to her brothers. Even if they didn't know it was her.

Her mother had stopped bombarding her with questions the moment she stepped inside the house, but she still looked like she was about to burst. Wordlessly Trini joined them, by taking a knife and starting to chop some sweet peppers while she thought about how she could bring up her friends to her parents.

She wasn't quite sure how to start but as the minutes ticked away she figured she could just stick to the truth. “My friends... had the idea that we could go camping during spring break for a few days. We wouldn't go for long and not far. Just into the woods on the other side of town. Can I go?”

Trini looked hopefully between her parents. Doubt started to build up inside her as she watched her mother's expression which told her that she wasn't quite sure about it. “I don't know, mija. I don't really know your friends.”

“Yes.. I had thought that maybe I could invite them over tomorrow. Just for a bit so you could meet them. Not for long, we wouldn't want to annoy you.. Just for a minute so you can see that they are very real and nice people.”

Her mother gave her father a look that Trini didn't like at all, but then her dad just smiled, placed his arm around his wife and smiled at her. “We would love to meet your friends tomorrow, mi amor.“

  
The next midday Trini was so nervous that all she wanted was for a hole to open up in the ground and swallow her whole. The others were supposed to arrive in about ten minutes and Trini had been pacing around in the kitchen for the better half of the last hour.

Jason was the first one to arrive and Trini was really glad that her parents didn't spend a lot of time keeping updated with highschool football and didn't recognize Jason or his name.

Her friend behaved all gentleman-like as he introduced himself to her parents, who were waiting in the living room, with strict faces, looking slightly like a firing squad, while her brothers had been banned to the garden.

The next to arrive were Zack and Billy. Billy had been nervous and Zack had offered to pick him up and walk to Trini's house together. While they stepped through the front door into the hallway, Billy leaned over to mumble to Trini. “Zack said you were just as nervous as me. And that you would rather like to fight Rita again than having us meet your parents. Are we really that bad?”

Trini couldn't help but smile apologizing to Billy. “It's not you guys that make me nervous. It's my parents.” And to Zack she hushed: “I texted you that in private, dude.” and playfully hit his upper arm.

“Sorry.” He shrugged unapologizing and grinned.

When Billy introduced himself, he as usual started to tell the story about what kids used to call him forcing Jason to having to stop his rambling.

When the doorbell rung for the third time, Trini's already fast beating heart started to speed up and the palms of her hands felt sweaty.

Before she turned the door handle she had to send a quick prayer begging whoever was listening, that Kimberly had remembered not to wear pink.

When she finally opened the door and Kim stood in front of her, smiling, as breathtaking as ever and without any pink on her, Trini told herself to relax. But as Kim stepped through the door, she placed both hands on her arms.

“Trini. Please remember to breathe.” Something in Kim's eyes made Trini release the breath she had been holding since the bell had rung.

Slowly she nods and leads Kim into the living room, carefully making sure that they didn't touch in front of her parents.

As her mother realized that Trini just brought a girl in the room, she started to muster her from top to bottom, the arm of Trini's father tightened around her waist.

“Hello. I'm Kimberly. Nice to meet you.” Kim offered Trini's parents her hand which both accepted much to her relief.

But her mother still didn’t look convinced and Trini was so scared of her saying something terrible, her jaw hurt from how tight she pressed her teeth together.

“So Kimberly... How do you feel about the color pink?”

Panic swept over Trini as her mother's question reached her ears. Kim looked at her with a slightly confused expression, but Trini's mouth was too dry to answer so she just shook her head slightly and hoped her friend would get the hind.

As Kim turned back to Trini's mother again, the polite smile was playing around the corners of her mouth again. Her voice was cool and collected as she bluntly lied her mother in a way Trini wished she could achieve. “I don't really like the color. Too bright. I don't think I own anything pink. Why?”

“Just a question.” Her mother still stared at Kim with narrowed eyes and Trini could feel anger start to bubble up inside her.

Her father seemed to pick up her blood starting to boil and quickly intervened. “So, how did you all meet?”

Trini jumped in before the others could say anything that her parents wouldn't like to hear. “We met in school. Kimberly and I have biology together. And she and Jason knew each other from cheerleading and football. And Zack and Billy from... other extracurricular activities.”

Zack then stepped next to her and placed an arm around Trini's shoulders, while grinning at her parents. “Yes, we four were all kinda on the same page, before Trini decided to take the jump and join our little friend group.”

Trini's parents looked quite confused by what Zack was saying, but the rangers all got what he was referring to and had to hide their grins.

But her father finally decided to break the uncomfortable silence. “Football. Cheerleading. Very nice. Showing school spirit.”

Kim and Jason only nodded and smiled and neither of them looked like they were going to mention the fact that they both were no longer part of the football team or the cheerleading squad.

“It was very nice to meet all of you.” Trini's dad smiled at them, before turning to his wife. “I think we should go check on the boys. Don't you think, June?” The tone in his voice gave away that he wouldn't allow any backtalk and maneuvered his wife out of the room and into the kitchen,

“Guys, you can go upstairs already. My room's the last door on the left. I'll be right up.” Trini smiled apologizing at her friends who all looked at her understanding and started to climb the staircase while Trini followed her parents into the kitchen.

“Really June? Was that necessary?” She heard her father's voice as she entered the room.  
“I just had to know..” June stopped talking as she looked at her daughter. “Trini. You and this girl? Are you-.”

“We are just friends.”, she tried to assure her, but she could barely keep her anger back. “You always wanted me to have friends. But once I make them you make us move again. No matter what you say I am not gonna move. I like my friends and I like it here.”  
Her voice was trembling, her father seemed to understand that she was about to burst with frustration and anger and stepped in. “Mija. They seem like very nice and polite people. You are allowed to go camping with them.”

A gasp escaped her mother's mouth as she tried to protest, but Trini fled before she could say anything. “Thanks, dad.”

  
In her room, Billy was stroking over the spot on her wall were Rita had pushed her in. Trini hadn't gotten the chance to paint over the grout yet. Zack was sitting on her desk-chair spinning in circles, while Kim was sprawled out on her bed, giving Trini a small heart attack as she saw her and Jason was standing in the middle of the room looking up to the hole in her ceiling.

“We should fix that soon.” Jason pointed up. “What do your parents thing happened here?”

Trini closed the door behind her and let herself lean against it. “Told them something about shockwaves from the attack.”

“And they bought that?” Zack's voice sounded from the desk-chair.

This got him just a shrug from Trini, who was very busy trying not to stare at Kim and trying to keep her brain from thinking thoughts that were not in any way appropriate having about a friend. Even if that friend was her soulmate.

“So what did your parents think about our little group of misfits?” Zack laughed as he stopped spinning, but lost his balance and fell from the chair with a bang.

“My dad doesn't seem to hate you completely. He said I could go camping with you.”

“And your mom?” Kim's voice came from her bed, when the girl sat up. “And what was that with the pink-question? And why did she only ask me about it?”

Trini figured, Kim must have asked the others if they had been asked the same question. She still wasn't sure how to explain it, without having to tell them everything.

“My mother… isn't easy and about the pink.. It's a long story.”

All their heads moved around when Billy, now crouching in front of the Rangers Trini and her brothers had drawn on the wall started to talk. “I like pink. And Kim's pink. Do they not like Kim?”

Trini really didn't know how she was supposed to get out of this anymore and none of her attempts to explain made any sense.“No. No. It's not that.. It's just... and.. they.” Billy had been right. To some extent. Her parents had something against her soulmate. They just didn't know it was Kim.

A loud bang against her door saved her from stuttering more nonsense. Her brothers had somehow escaped her parents grip and now wanted to meet everyone. While the older of the two of them went and shook everyone’s hand, her youngest brother stuck to Trini's leg, looking shyly at her friends.

After a few moments, he pointed at Kim as he pulled her jacket to make her crouch down to him. “She's pretty.” he said to Trini and then turned to Kim. ”I hope Trini tells you that.”

This made Kim's cheek turn slightly red as she laughed and smirked at Trini. “Unfortunately not often enough.”

Now it was Trini's turn to blush under Kim's amused and Zack's smug expression.

“Okay, poison dwarfs. That's it. Say goodbye to my friends.” Trini pushed them out the door before they could say anything else that brought her trouble and then turned back to her friends. “Anyone in the mood for donuts?”

 

On the way to where Krispy Kreme had set up a food truck, for the time their shop was being rebuilt after having been destroyed by a very angry golden monster, Jason, Kim and Billy were walking in front, while Zack and Trini followed them a few feet behind.

“Even your brother knows about your crush on Kim.” Zack looked like he was trying to stop himself from laughing.

“What?” Had she hoped to keep her feelings for Kim from everyone, she now knew that it hadn't worked. At all. Still she decided to play dumb. “What crush are you talking about?”

“Please girl. It's so obvious. You stare at her even when all she does is breathe.”

Unfortunately Kim chose that exact moment to giggle in front of them. The sound alone made Trini's head spin and she managed to trip over her own feet. Zack had to catch her to stop her from falling to the ground.

She mumbled a quick: “Thanks.” while avoiding to look at the raised eyebrow in his face.

“So when are you gonna tell her?”

Trini knew she had to give in eventually. The entire thing with Kim was eating up her insides. She trusted Zack and knew that he wouldn't stop until she had admitted the truth. “I had planned on never.”

“But why not?”

“Cause I don't know if she even likes me.. or girls in general for that matter.. and..” Trini couldn't keep it to herself any longer. ”Because how does one tell someone that they are their soulmate.”

Zack stopped dead in his tracks causing Trini to walk into his side. As he turned around, his smug expression had disappeared and a stunned and speechless one had taken over his face. “Hold up.. She's.. she's your.. ?!”

Trini nodded and gestured for him to keep walking since the others hadn't noticed their slacking and were now good 30 meters in front of them.

“Even better. Now you have to tell her.” Then he threw his arm around her shoulder of the shorter girl. “I will have to let you know that I am the perfect wingman.

She shoved him off with a laugh. “No Zack please don't.”, she added more serious.

“Don't what?” The grin plastered on his face was telling Trini that whatever he was planning couldn't be good.

Trini wanted to answer, but by then they had caught up to the others and Kimberly was smiling at her and she quickly forgot about her friend who was now grinning at the two of them, a mischievous smirk on his lips.

 

A few days later they were finally piling their bags, tents and various other things on the back of Jason's truck to go camping. Trini was looking forward for the days away from her parents and everything else. Just her friends and the woods was all she wanted at the moment.

  
By the time they were leaving the sun was already starting to set, but several parents had intervened pushing the time they had planned to leave further and further back.  
The plan was to stay for two nights and return to Angel Grove on the evening of the third day.

Jason was now driving the truck down some meandering forest-road, Billy in the passenger seat, while Trini was sitting on the back of the truck, squished between Kim, Zack and various bags.

The few miles they drove into the woods didn't take long and soon enough they reached the spot at the lake which Jason had been taking about. A small dock reached a few meters into the lake, while at shore they found a fireplace with logs surrounding it on the a small clearing that left enough space for tents before the woods started around it again.

“My father used to take us here when he started to teach me how to fish.” Jason turned off the engine and everyone started to jump out and off the car. He then started to continue talking about differences between fishing in the ocean and in lakes and rivers.

Trini tried to listen at first, but when Kim jump off the back of the truck she stretched herself, causing her shirt to slip up slightly revealing more skin of her back than Trini could take before her brain started to short out.

As Kim turned around and Trini saw the coy smirk on her face she knew she had been caught staring and a faint red crept on her cheeks.

Kim seemed to make sure that the boys had already gone down to the edge of the water before she stepped next to Trini. “See something you like?”

With her eyebrow arched and a mischievous smile the taller girl looked awaiting at Trini, but just as she was about to try to talk, which had probably only ended in a choked sound, Billy called from the pier. “Trini. Kim. Look there are so many small fish in the water.”

Trini might have walked a bit too fast towards him and away from Kim, cause she could hear the girl chuckle as she followed her to where her friends were standing.

The fish Billy had been talking about turned out to be about the size of a pinky finger and swam in a shoal of fish around the wood-bitts of the dock.

  
Since the sun was already setting, Kim insisted they should set up their tents before it got too dark.

The smaller tent Kimberly had gotten from her parents was quickly set up with Trini's help and Kim who actually seemed to know what she was doing, while the tent the boy had been ordered to set up was still a mess on the floor.

Zack had somehow managed to tangle himself in the ropes that were supposed to secure the tent, meanwhile Billy tried to click the rods together in the right order and Jason held the instruction manual the wrong way around.

The laughing fit Trini had when Zack tripped over a cord he was currently entangling and he fell face first to the ground, made Kim shake her head in disbelieve.

“While you three fight with the tent, Trin and I are gonna go collect some wood for the fire.” Without waiting for the others to respond she took ahold of Trini's hand and pulled her away and through the tree line.

They soon separated a few feet, and started to pile up dry sticks and branches on their arms. “When we come back and the boys still haven't set up their tent, I suggest you share the tent with me. And honestly even if they manage to build it I highly doubt the stability.”, Kim said, her back facing Trini.

At the thought of sharing a tent with Kimberly, a knot in her throat had formed and made it hard to answer. “Sure.” Her voice sounded weak and cracked as she leaned down to pick up another stick. “Sounds good.”

The sound of Kim dropping the wood she had collected made her turn around. The girl was standing in front of a huge tree, staring with awe to the tree top.

“Race you to the top.” And with that Kim started to climb the tree faster than any monkey could. She jumped from branch to branch and Trini got dizzy just by looking at her for the ground.

Since she couldn't let Kim's dare fall on silent ears, she threw her sticks on the pile where the other girl had left hers and started to follow her up the tree.

Kim was long sitting on the highest secure looking branch before Trini finally pulled herself up and joined her.

“Look.” She pointed through the leaves that surrounded them and as Trini followed her arm she saw the sun set over the mountains. The sky was mostly colored in a deep orange almost like it was burning; only a faint stripe of pink was visible where the sun was currently disappearing behind the horizon.

The hand she had just used to point at the sky, she placed on top of Trini's which was lying on the branch. At first she thought it had been an accident, but then Kim interlaced her fingers with hers.

“Looks really beautiful.” Trini said quietly, more looking at Kim than anything else, but because the girl's eyes were still glued to the horizon she didn't notice.

The corners of her mouth tucked up slightly. “Yes, I love sunsets.”

They stayed quiet for a few moments after, only enjoying each other and the nature around them.

When the last bit of sun had disappeared, Kim suggested that they should get back to camp. Instead on climbing back down like a normal person would, Kimberly just let herself fall back, her legs still wrapped around the branch they had just sat on, while her bod hung freely. The next moment she just let herself fall, until her hands caught a branch a lot further down.

While she hung there she grinned up to a speechless Trini. “You coming?”

The girl decided to stick to the way she had climbed up and moved hand over hand down the tree maybe a little more like normal human being would.  
Again Kim was already waiting for her as Trini finally reached the foot of the tree.

“Loser has to carry.” Without warning a laughing Kim pushed both her's and Trini's pile of firewood in her arms.

Letting out a grunt she followed the taller girl, who occasionally picked up another stick and placed it on top of the stack with a smirk.

  
When they got back to camp, somehow Jason and Zack had lost both of their shirts as they had a fun sparring match while Billy stood next to them and pointed out their weak spots. Their tent was still a crumble on the floor.

“Guess that settles it, you're sleeping with me.”, Kim commented and Trini tripped over her own feet, causing the sticks to fly from her arms.

The loud clattering from the wood hitting the ground and Kim's laughing made the boys stop their fight. Zack was holding Jason in a choke and the three boys looked at them a bit confused. This was very likely caused by the look of Trini blushing furiously while Kim held her stomach from laughing and the two girls were surrounded by various sticks rolling away from them.

  
The tent of the boys was set up successfully by Jason and Zack after Kim took the lead and made sure that they were doing it right.

In the meantime Billy and Trini started to work on the fire and the dinner. After collecting the firewood she had dropped she stacked them and with some paper she soon managed to get it to burn. Billy had heaved the chilled container containing their food from the back of Jason's truck and hauled it towards the fireplace. Jason's mother had helped them prepare dough for twist bread which Trini was now wrapping around sticks from which she had removed the bark at the tip.

Once the fire had burned down enough, leaving only the glowing embers and the others had finished with setting up the tent, the five of them huddled around the fire. Jason and Billy huddled together on one log, while Kim, Zack and Trini each had a log for their own.

  
Jason took over the grillage onto which Billy had already laid out different kinds of cut vegetables and some streaks, while Trini handed out the sticks she wrapped with the twist bread, while the rest of them handled plates and everything else.

Soon enough they were enjoying their food while sitting around the fire, chatting, laughing and Trini had never felt so warm at heart before as she did when she looked at each of them and saw the shadows casted by the fire dance on their faces.

Her eyes stopped on Kimberly who was currently comparing her camping experiences to Billy's while breaking off pieces of her now done stick bread to eat it slowly. At one point Kim glanced over to Trini and Trini could already felt herself get flustered for getting caught, but Kimberly only started to smile so soft she completely forgot about getting embarrassed.

After Jason had proposed that they should resume training in the next days since Rita had said that others would come, Billy made the ingredients for s’mores appear from somewhere, while Zack connected his phone to a speaker and ordered a dance party.  
It only took them about one song to figure out that Zack's taste in music wasn't agreeing with almost all of them and they changed it to Kim's who had more light pop and dance music on her's.

If someone had told Trini a few months ago that she would be jumping around a fire to the song of some popstar, a s’more in her hand together with three friends and her soulmate she would have never believed them.

  
After an especially up-lifting-song Zack checked his watch and announced that he wanted to go check on his mother. When Billy and Jason offered to come along, it took them a bit to convince the boy, but ultimately he agreed and the three of the started to run, too fast for a normal human being and had soon disappeared between the trees.  
Now alone, the girls started to clean up the mess from their dinner.

“God, our friends are pigs.” Kim shook her head in disbelief as she emptied Zack's cup and a piece of steak fell out.

They were finishing tidying up around the fire place, as Kim started to hum along to a song that was just starting to play. “I love this song.”

 Trini recognized it as Yellow by Coldplay and as she listened to Kim's humming her heart fluttered and she decided to be brave just for once. But it wasn't Trini if she hadn't had to make a fool out of herself.

She walked up to Kim, made a curtsey and offered her her hand. “Care to dance, milady?”

Trini had only to endure a few heartbeats of excruciating waiting, before Kim answered her by curtseying herself and placing her hand in Trini's.

Her hand found its way onto Kim's hip, as she felt Kim's fingers settle on her shoulder. The grin she got from her in return, allowed her body to move and she took the lead, making them dance in a slow motion.

The silence between them started to make Trini's head spin; she could only try to look into so many directions other than at Kim before she got dizzy. She could feel her eyes on her and could feel that if she didn't talk about something unimportant soon, she might slip and reveal something she didn't want to. “Do you know if the others have anything special planned for tomorrow?”

Watching how the corners of Kim's lips were tucked up didn't help with Trini's lack of coordination and she had to concentrate in order not to step on Kim's feet while they slowly danced around the fireplace in circles.

“Really, Trini? That is what you are thinking about in this very moment?” Kim's smile slipped as she shook her head.

The next thing Trini knew was that Kim pulled her hand from her's and she waited for Kim to step away. Instead her fingers only wandered to her wrist and moved Trini's hand to her hip, so her arms were now both wrapped around Kim's waist. It tickled slightly as Kim interlaced her fingers in the back of Trini's neck and she started to run her thumbs through her hair.

Her hands clenched to fists tightly gripped into her jacket, fearing she could leave as soon as she let go.

As Kim then leaned her forehead against Trini's, she had to admit that she had never felt as alive as she did in that moment. Even though she was frozen completely still as they had stopped to dance when Kim changed their positions, yet Trini couldn't care less. All that mattered in that moment was Kim and the way her warm skin felt against her own.

When Kimberly's eyes flickered down to her lips and her tongue slipped out between her own for a moment to moisten them, Trini started to tell herself that this was all a dream.

A look into Kim's eyes revealed that their soft expression had changed into something Trini couldn't place. But then Kim tilted her neck just slightly, while her hands still in Trini's neck started to pull her towards her and Trini's mind went blank.

She couldn't believe what was about to happen, when loud voices from the woods behind them echoed and the two of them jumped apart. Literally. Because of their superstrength, they actually separated quiet far and were now standing good 15 feet away from each other.

In the next moment the three boys broke through the tree-line and jogged onto the clearing.

While looking around, Billy mentioned:” Oh, you already cleaned.”

Trini was still unable to move, whereas Kim cleared her throat, ran her hand through her hair which looked unearthly hot and smiled at him. “Yes, we did. Had nothing better to do.” At that comment she looked at Trini and her smile turned into a smirk, but Trini now back to being her cowardly self just looked away.

Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Kim's face darkened and the smirk fell as if it had never been there in the first place.

“So what are the plans now?” Zack asked them.

“I'm pretty tired. I think I'm just gonna go to bed.” Something in Kim's voice made Trini look up from the very interesting rock her eyes had been staring at before. The tone was too sad and disappointed for her liking but again she didn't act. Instead she just watched how Kim disappeared into their tent with an emotionless expression.

“Did something happen?” Jason looked slightly worried, as Trini forced her fakest smile on her face which didn't seem to convince him the slightest bit.

“No, we were just done cleaning.” She turned to the others. “I was gonna go for a swim, if anyone wants to join.”

Without waiting for a reply she stripped out of her clothes, hung them over the log she was currently standing next to and ran dressed in her favorite yellow bikini towards the water.

She took a header from the dock and dove headfirst into the water. The cold wet embraced her and forced the air out of her lungs.

Still below the surface a few strong strokes carried her away from the shore and she only came back up as the pain from her lungs aching for air was stronger than the will for it to hurt to keep her brain from thinking about Kimberly.

Her breathing was going heavy and fast as she resurfaced and she relaxed to allow her body to float on her back.

A splash resounded from the pier and soon enough she saw Zack swimming in her direction.

As he reached her he mirrored her position and floated quiet next to her for a while.  
“Do you want to talk about it?” His voice was calm and gentle and she could feel how much he cared.

Yet she still couldn't admit to herself what had happened, let alone talk to someone else about it. “No, but... thank you.””

She could feel his eyes on her, but as he finally spoke up a wave of relief washed over her. “Okay.”

They just floated on their backs watching the stars, their fingertips occasionally brushing while they were keeping themselves afloat with slow arm movements, until Zack announced he would go to bed now.

As he walked out of the water, she could hear himself let out a whispered: “Fuck, was that cold.” and she couldn't stop the small smile that crept on her face from the fuzzy feeling that him caring about her made her feel.

  
She only left the water as her lips and the beds of her nails had turned blue, but standing in the warm spring night air, wrapped in her towel warmed her up quickly.  
With quick fingers she turned off the camping light that someone had left standing in front of her tent as she finally crawled into the tent, torn between wanting Kim to be asleep or awake.

It wasn't pitch black that night, since the moon stood high and full in the night sky. It allowed her to see Kim's silhouette who was lying facing the tent-wall, her sleepingbag on top of her, the warm night allowing her to use it unzipped as a blanket.

Standing in the tent entrance Trini grabbed some new clothes and stepped back out for a second again to change out of her still damp bikini. She placed it on her towel which she had lain out next to the tent so it could dry over night and as she entered the tent again she only closed the screen against insects as she tried to move around as quiet as possible.

As she laid down on her mat, she stared at the tent ceiling, listening to the sounds around her. Kim's steady breathing, crickets and other insects chirping all around her, the boys whispering in their tent.

The rustling of Kim's sleepingbag made her jerk and the sudden reminder of her presence and Trini's constant screw-ups caused her eyes to sting. She could feel that Kimberly had shifted and was now looking at her but she couldn't bring herself to face her.

When the stinging in her eyes got too bad she pinched the bridge of her nose to stop the tears from falling. This caused more crinkling from Kim and then Trini felt a light touch on her arm.

“You okay?” Kim's whisper was so close to her ear she could feel her warm breath on her skin.

Trini only nodded. She couldn't understand why the girl was still seemingly caring about her, even though she had just ignored her after their moment a few hours ago and her face definitely showed hurt before.

The knot forming in her throat threatening to suffocate her, forcing her to sit up for a moment.

As she pressed the palm of her hands against her eyes in a last attempt to stop her from crying she felt Kim's hand gently stroke the skin on her shoulder, she couldn't stay strong any longer. She allowed her guard to fall and threw herself in Kim's arms. The surprised girl let out a huff, but then Trini felt her arms tighten around her as she held her close.

Trini didn't know how long they stayed like that. The tears didn't fall after all, her heart felt heavy, but Kim's slow, steady heartbeat seemed to calm her down.

At one point they laid back down, Trini still cuddled against Kim's chest and she could feel how her eyelids got more and more heavy.

Sleep had almost taken over her, when she felt Kim press a light kiss against her forehead and her heart fluttered. She figured Kim had thought she was already fast asleep, so she decided to keep quiet, but couldn't stop a small smile as she melted further into Kim's embrace.

  
Trini woke up early, from being too hot, caused by something heavy lying on her side and hair tickling her cheek. It took her a minute to realize where she was and who was pressing on her side. When she was finally awake enough to grasp the situation she realized that it was Kim who was lying in her arm, her leg over Trini's and her hand on her stomach.

From the tingling and the numbness in her arm, she gathered that the girl had been lying nestled against her for quite a while. Her breath was still deep and calm and while Trini didn't want anything more than stay in this position and stare at Kimberly's soft and relaxed face her full bladder made it harder and harder to keep still.

A few more agonizing minutes were all she could handle before she entangled herself from Kim and crawled out of the tent.

The fresh morning air made her feel awake immediately and after relieving herself behind a few bushes away from the camp she sat down on the pier, her feet dangling in the water.

Trini listened to the forest awaking up around her as the sun was starting to rise behind the trees across the lake.

After a while the sound of footsteps walking on the wood of the dock reached her ears and as she looked up to Jason dragging his feet towards her. The boy settled next to her, yawning a sleepy: “Good morning.”.

They exchanged polite questions about how the other slept and Trini was reminded of the goddess that was currently sleeping in her tent. Images of the girl in various sleep positions flashed in front of her mind and all of them caused a faint blush on Trini's cheeks. It's not that the images were exceedingly dirty or anything, some certainly were, but Trini didn't think she could ever get sick of waking up next to Kim and the thought alone was enough to make the part in her that liked to pretend she was a badass with a heart of stone cringe.

The next to wake up was Billy. The boy waded into the water from the shore until it reached up to his knees. He then continued to stand completely still while watching the fish swim around his legs and every time one nibbled at him he started to grin from ear to ear.

It didn't go unnoticed by Trini that whenever Billy let out a squealing sound of joy a smile accompanied by a soft expression crept on Jason's face.

  
The sun was already high in the sky when Zack and Kim finally got up, and even then they had probably been woken by the other three deciding they had slept long enough and were no longer caring about the amount of noise they created as they started to prepare breakfast.

They stumbled out of their tents; imprints of their pillows on their sleepy faces, after Jason had repeatedly shook on the rods of both of their tents.  
While Zack run first thing straight into the lake, only to resurface with a gasped scream, Kim stood squinting at the sun in front of their tent.

Trini was currently sitting on one of the logs searching through a bag for some fruits she knew she had stuffed in there the day before. Her eyes kept wandering over to Kim who threw her a sheepish smile before she stretched herself. Of course she had to wear a top so short that it rode up and revealed several inches off toned stomach and Trini had to look away quickly.

 

After breakfast, Trini changed back into her now dry bikini and settled on her stomach on her towel, her favorite book lying in front of her. Distracted by reading about her favorite lesbian pirates she only noticed that Kim had changed her outfit from shorts and top to a bright pink bikini when the girl walked by her and started to wade into the water. Trini was pretty sure her brain had short-circuited as she stared at Kim's back. Her eyes wandered up her long legs, lingered maybe a bit too long at her ass before her glance was caught by the flexing of her shoulder muscles as she tied her hair up in a small bun.

Before anyone, especially Kim could notice her staring Trini turned around to her book again, but she couldn't concentrate any longer. The image of Kim in her new outfit made it impossible to finish a single sentence and Trini decided that a swim in the lake would maybe help her cool off and clear her head from distracting thoughts.

Thankfully the water blurred Kim's figure for the most part and as long as Trini didn't dive and look in her direction she managed to have an actually conversation with Jason and Kim as they swam around.

  
At one point Zack and Billy joined them and brought a football with them. Jason and Billy weren't in the mood for throwing a ball between each other, but Kim, Zack and Trini soon were playing a round of piggy in the middle

Trini was currently in the middle trying to somehow catch the football thrown with inhuman speed between Zack and Kim, as Zack missed Kim by miles and the football flew back onto the shore. While shaking her head Kim swam back to retrieve the ball, but as the girl stepped out onto the beach Trini started to feel lightheaded. Water was dripping off her while her bikini stuck to her skin, leave no room for imagination. Her hair tie must have come loose during the game, and Trini could have sworn the world was suddenly going in slow-motion as Kim threw her hair back, water flying from the wet strands. Trini's brain had long stopped work properly and at the sight of Kimberly she forgot how to swim for a second and her mouth sunk underwater and she inhaled a bit of water. Immediately she started to cough. With a few strong strokes she reached the pier and pulled herself up on the wooden dock. While she was still coughing weakly, Zack still floating in the middle of the lake had started to laugh. Somehow he must have realized what had happened and was now snickering like an old lady.

When her coughing fit had finally stopped, she let herself fall weakly on her back. Her eyes closed she enjoyed the warmth of the sun and the tickling from the water on her skin.

A shadow then fell over her and she opened her eyes to look up at the worst angle to a worried looking Kim. The next thing she knew she was coughing again and she had to sit up, Kim now crouching down beside her. The proximity to the girl didn't help at all. Neither did Zack's still ongoing laughter in the background.

Still coughing Trini took the football Kim had retrieved from wherever Zack had thrown it out of her hands and chucked it hard against Zack's head.

  
A while later Trini tried to focus on her book again, but Kim had decided she had to sunbathe right next to her. The words in front of her eyes blurred as her mind wandered to places that sometimes were nowhere near PG-13 as she sneaked glances in Kim's direction. The sun was glistening in water droplets on her skin caught her eyes every time they wandered down Kim's body, admiring her toned muscles and overall body.

“Trini?” Zack's voice snapped her out of her thoughts about what it might be like to touch Kim. Not necessary in a sexual way, but just to let her fingers hover slowly over her skin, press feather light kisses on her and just enjoy the warmth she radiated.

“What?” She might have answered a bit too harsh, as she took from the startled look on his face.

“Just wanted to ask if you were up for a little sparring match.” The defensive tone in his voice was something she rarely got to witness.

With one last side look towards the still tanning Kim she pushed herself up. “Alright. I just need to put some real clothes on. This..” She gestured to the bikini she was still wearing. “This outfit might be a little too prone for slipping easily.”

A shirt and a top were quickly found and pulled on over the bikini.

  
Soon enough she and Zack circled each other, every punch and kick was deflected and neither one of the two managed to get a good hit. Zack was more brutal in his movements, but Trini was quick and agile.

The other three rangers had taken notice from their little fight and were now watching them. They discussed their actions, only letting out a small: “Nice one, Zack.” or a “Very good, Trini.” on occasion.

But when Trini managed to duck away Zack's incoming fist and landed a punch on his back, she heard Kim cheer from the sideline. The noise threw her off for a moment. It didn't last long, but it was enough time for Zack to recover from his received hit and return the punch by kicking Trini in the side. Normally she would have easily dodged him, but with her train of thought still lost, she recognized his move too late. His foot kicked her directly into her ribs and forced the air out of her lungs. Like a puppet without strings she slumped down in the sand.

Within the next nanosecond the others were around her.

“You okay?” Jason asked, his face looking down at her with concern.

Kim had let herself fall on her knees and as her hands found the seam of her shirt, her worried eyes asked silently for permission to lift it. This was in no way like Trini had imagined Kim would get her out of her shirt for the first time. Fortunately her face was already red from fighting in the sun, so that no one could see that the red on her cheeks wasn't just from heat as Kim pulled up her shirt just slightly.

Her fingers ghosted over her skin and Trini shivered under the touch. Kim placed a hand over the already red spot, where Zack's foot had met her ribs and Trini flinched. Both from the jolt of pain that ripped through her body and from the feeling of Kim's hand on her waist.

“I don't think it's broken.” Kim spoke as she pulled her hand away, but the anxious expression on her face was still there.

“I'm fine.” She tried not to pull too much of a face as she got up and knocked off the sand from her clothes. “Rematch!”

Zack didn't look too confident over her suggestion as he look in the faces of the others, who seemed to share his concerns. “I don't know, Trin. I kicked you kinda hard.”

“Please, as if. I can barely feel it anymore.” That was a complete lie, but Trini was not someone who gave up very quickly. Instead she pushed the pain out of her mind and started to get in fighting position.

“Alright.” The smirk on Zack's face reappeared and the others quickly stepped back.  
Between punches Zack hissed: “You need to learn to control yourself, girl.”, an unbearable smug grin on his lips.

“Shut up.” Trini put more force in her kicks and managed to get the boy to lose his balance for a second, but he quickly caught himself again.

“One word from Kim and you are a gay mess.” Even though he was whispering, Trini feared that if he kept talking someone might overhear him and she really wasn't in the mood for more of his taunting. “Do something about it. Or wingman-Zack has to intervene.”

“Don't. You. Dare.” With every word she threw a punch. Each harder than the one before and finally managed to catch Zack off guard. Quickly she had him in a stranglehold on the ground and he had to tap out.

With a victorious grin she jumped up and offered her hand to pull him up with her. It felt good that she managed to ignore Kim, whose eyes she had felt burn on her skin the entire match, long enough to concentrate to beat Zack.

Just her rib was less grateful for the continued beatings and was really hurting. She decided to go for another swim, cooling her rib would help with the healing.

  
Later that day, when Jason and Trini sitting side by side were preparing fish and the remains of the dough for the twist bread for dinner. He and Billy had caught a few fish when they had casted some fishing rods in the lake when no one had been swimming.  
Trini really wondered why she was always one of the people feeding the other rangers on their trip.

After they had eaten the fish, the bread and some s’mores and cleaned the place back up, they were all sitting around the fire.

Trini couldn't get rid of the feeling that Zack was watching her with a mischievous grin, probably already planning something to embarrass her.

And soon enough the boy opened his mouth and Trini could feel her doom approach with every word he spoke.

“Guys, don't you think there are still a lot of secrets between us.” Innocently he poked his stick repeatedly in the ground before him.

“What do you mean?” Jason tilted his head and looked at him expectantly.

“I mean..” He pretended to be thinking for a moment before he continued. “Like of course we hang out all the time now, but we still don't really know each other. We don't know everything about each other, like our deepest, darkest secrets.”

“What deepest, darkest secrets are you talking about?” With a small rattling noise Kim threw another branch into the fire to keep it going.

“For example, our soulmate-impressions.” There it was.

Zack was looking at her directly now, the expression in his eyes unreadable.

“You really want to talk about that?” Jason, still sitting next to Trini seemed unsure and was nervously jiggling his leg up and down as he shoot a glance at Kim.

“Why not?” He shrugged. “I can start.”

“Alright.”

“I didn't have one. Or not that I can remember.”

“How does that count as starting?” Trini commented derisively.

“It's still the truth. Everyone was always weird that I didn't have one, but I don't really mind.” He snapped his stick in little pieces and threw them into the flames.

“I can talk about mine.” Billy offered. “I also don't recall having one, but my parents always said that when I was about 12 I started to have an unhealthy obsession with the T-Rex. And for some reason I painted all of them red.”

Next to her Jason started to blush furiously.

“Around that time my father gave me all his fossils, but he died shortly after. And the fossils were all I had. I really miss him sometimes”

All looked at the boy softly, as he smiled at them. “But now I have you.”

“What about you, Trini?” Her eyes were glistening with hate for Zack, as the boy asked her in the most innocently sounding way possible.

She felt all of their eyes on her and suddenly she couldn't breathe anymore. “No. I don't.. I don't want to talk about it.”

“Why?”

“Because it's none of your fucking business, Zack.” Anger was rushing through her veins, probably caused by the panic of having to talk openly about the thing that brought her so much pain over the past years.

She felt bad about yelling at him, but before she knew it she was up on her feet. “I'm gonna.. go get some more firewood.”

Without waiting for any of them to react she turned around and hurried into the surrounding woods.

Behind her the voices of the others called after her and then the sound of footsteps of someone following her reached her ears.

“Trini. Stop. Please. ” Kim begged, but she couldn’t face her. Not when telling her the truth meant risking losing everything.

“Trin-” The voice was interrupted by a hollow sound followed by something falling to the ground and cursing.

As she turned around she spotted Kim, now sitting on the ground cursing, covering one eye with her hand, her face painfully twisted.

The next second Trini was next to her, carefully taking her chin in her hand, turning her head towards her.

“Let me see.”

Kim lowered her arm and Trini pushed a few strands of hair behind Kim's ear to get a better look at her eye. A small cut ran across her cheekbone and a glorious bruise was already forming around it.

“What happened?”  
She only pointed to a low hanging branch to their right. “It's nothing. I'm gonna be healed in a bit.”

Her hand was still cupping Kim's chin, as the girl placed her hand on her wrist.

Trini flinched at the touch as she had burned herself and jumped back on her feet.

The confusion and pain was clearly written all over Kim's face. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing.” She turned on her heel and started to walk away again.

“Trini. Please.” Never had her heart ached as much as it did when she heard Kim's voice, sounding so broken and pleading.

With a heavy heart she made the mistake of looking back to her, and as she saw the tears glistening in the corners of Kim's eyes, she broke.

“I... I can't risk it. I can't lose you.” And then the tears were rolling down her cheeks and Kim was in front of her, her's warm arms pulled her in.

Her tiny body shook as she sobbed in Kim's embrace and it took her a while to calm down again.

 

“Look at me.” Her breathing was still heavy and unsteady as Kim loosened the grip around her.

With puffy eyes she lifted her head to look at Kim, only to see that the taller girl had also shed a few tears.

Giving her a small sad smile Kim wiped Trini's tears away. “You aren't gonna lose us, you hear me? We are a team now. Nothing is gonna change that.”

“My mother can never see you in pink.”, she blubbered out.

Kim nodded, but Trini could read in her puzzled expression that she didn't make much sense. “Okay, you don't have to tell me why. But it might help me understand what's going on.”

The longer she stared at the girl in front of her the more she wanted to tell her the truth.

As she offered her a supporting smile, Trini gave up. It took her a few deep breaths, but then she looked at Kim and started to explain. “The reason I got so freaked out when Zack asked about my impression... I got it when I was 14 and it's the reason why my family moved around so often. My mother is scared senseless that... that my impression comes true, I guess. And when a situation gets too similar to her liking she pulls the rug out from under us and moves us half way across the country.”

Kim listened quietly and seemed in thought before she asked: “And this has something to do with pink?”

She only got a nod as response.

A wave of different looks washed over her face, none staying long enough for Trini to place one.

“Your impression, your mother is scared it might be about me? Is that why I can't wear pink?”

Trini's heart was threatening to burst in her chest. Again she only nodded, her throat too dry for her to answer as she stared at the tips of her shoes.

“Well...” She could hear the hesitation in Kim's voice and she took too long to answer, causing Trini to look up. “And is.. is your mother right? Is it me?”

There was nothing in the world that Trini wanted more in that moment, than telling Kim that her impression was about her, but she couldn't. Frozen she just looked at her friend, who looked back at her with sad eyes full of expectation.

Next to them, the rustling of leaves and the cracking of branches resounded and Jason stepped through the bushes. “Everything okay? We were getting worried.”

A smile was already on Kimberly's face as she assured him that they were alright and he started walking back to camp.

Trini started to follow him, but then felt Kim wordlessly take her hand accompanied with a soft smile.

Together they rejoined with the others again, Kim now sitting down next to Trini, forcing Jason to find a new seat.

She had let go of Trini's hand as they had settled down on the log, but had then wrapped her arm around her waist.

“Everything okay? What happened to your eye, Kim?” Billy asked innocently.

“I walked into a branch.” Kim shrugged.

Being bad at apologizes, Trini squirmed in her seat. “I'm sorry for yelling at you, Zack. And for just running away.” She kneaded her hands in her lap. “I should have just told you that my impression is a... a sensitive issue for me. We often moved because of it. Because my mother didn't want me to find the girl that it was about. But that is about all I really want to say about that at the moment. Can we please just talk about something else?”

“Good idea.” Jason agreed and gave Trini a supportive look through the flames.

“I think we should figure out a way to morph the Zords.” Billy suggested. “A way that doesn't involve us being pushed into a flaming bit. It might come in handy against future opponents.”

And then they were all talking again, proposing different ways they could try to morph.

All except Kim, who stayed too quiet for Trini's liking.

  
Billy soon announced that he wanted to go to bed and as he got up, Zack stood as well claiming he had to check on this mother before going to sleep.

Jason shoot Trini one look before he said he would join Zack and the two boys disappeared into the forest.

The arm around her waist disappeared as Kim sat up and started to walk towards the dock. Trini wasn't sure what she was supposed to do, but then the girl turned around. “You coming?”

She was on her feet immediately, followed Kim and the two of them sat down at the end of the pier, their feet dangling in the water.

They were quiet for a while, nothing to be heard, but the noises of the woods, the splashing of the water as they moved their feet and their breaths.  
Trini had placed her hand next to Kim's as her fingers gripped around the edge of the wooden planking of the pier.

She wasn't feeling very brave but she managed to hook their pinky fingers which earned her the tiniest of smiles from Kim.

It was up to her then, to interlace their fingers completely.

“Trini?”

“Yes?”

Kim stopped gazing at the water surface and looked up to Trini. “Your impression. Can you tell me what it was? Please.”

The knot that had formed in her throat she swallowed before she nodded and started to talk. “It was… It was a pink pterodactyl flying above my head.”

Her face was still completely unreadable, but her hand was still warm in Trini's which she took as a good sign. “And you told your mother that?”

“No, I had doodles of pink things all over my notebooks. She found them and somehow and I really don't know how she knew, but she did, she figured that I had an impression about a girl.”

“Motherly intuition?” Kim offered weak. “Trini? I..?”

“Huh?” Her feet kicked up a few small waves.

“I really want to kiss you. Is that... Would that be okay?”

At first Trini didn't believe what she was hearing, but as she glanced at Kim to see if she was joking she was only met by big brown eyes waiting for her to respond.

So she nodded and when Kim's tongue dipped out between her lips Trini forgot how to breathe.

Both girls turned to face each other and Kim moved slightly closer.

But as Trini tried to pull her feet out of the water to be able to look at her better she somehow entangled her legs, lost her balance and fell off the pier into the cold water.

Embarrassment was burning in her core as she resurfaced, but watching Kim roll around and die of laughter made it all worth it.

Huffing she splashed some water at her and Kim slowly started to calm down.

Much more gracefully she slipped off the pier and into the water.

With only one stroke in her direction, she reached Trini. Her hand pushed some of Trini's wet hair out of her face, while Trini somehow managed to get a grip on Kim's waist.

Both of them were trying to keep themselves over water by moving their legs, but even with superstrength their coordination wasn't the best.

Looking Kimberly's face now meant being met by a small smirk and dark and fully blown pupils.

As Trini watched how Kim's glance flickered down to her lips and she bit down on her own bottom lip, she couldn't stand it any longer.

Her arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her body flushed against her own. It was awkward, because of their different speeds of moving their legs to keep them up float.

But as soon as they had managed to keep one pace and the risk of bumping their noses had minimized, Kim's hand wandered from Trini's cheek into the back of her neck and in her hair.

With Kim's hands in her neck, guiding her closer gently. She only stopped to hover over Trini's lips for a moment, before Trini's closed the distance between them and pressed her lips against Kim's.

Kim tasted of lake-water and s’mores and Trini had never felt anything like the movement of Kim's lips against her own. Her skin tingled all over and her insides felt like they were burning. A consuming fire that flared up with every move or noise Kim made. Never had Trini been so aware of anything before. Kim was it. Kim was everything. She could feel her in every cell in her body as lighting shot through her veins and she tightened the grip around Kim's waist.

As the girl's hands turned into fists in her hair, pulling slightly, she tried to deepen the kiss, but they were still floating in a lake, trying to keep themselves over water, limiting her possible movements.

Kim then broke the kiss for a moment, but her hands stayed in her hair and she looked at Trini with puffy lips and heavy going breath.

Trini then felt herself being pull back in, Kim's lips moving more hungry now and she could have sworn at one point Kim dug her teeth into her bottom lip, nibbling ever so gentle. But Trini couldn't tell what was real anymore, her brain too dizzy from kissing Kimberly and the lack of oxygen.

The pain in their chests as their lungs ached for air forced them to separate and to let go of the other using their arms to support their legs in keeping them upwards.

Her eyes admiringly wandered over her face to take it all in, but stopped on the spot on her face where Kim had ran into the branch a few hours before. The cut had already closed up, but the bruise was still coloring her jawbone dark purple. Kim's hair was wet, stuck to her skin while drops of water were running down her face, her lips were puffy and tucked upward into a smile and Trini had never seen anyone so beautiful before.

“Wow.”, was all Trini managed to pant out.

“So I've been told.” Kim grinned smug.

Shaking her head in disbelief Trini swam closer, pretending to go in for a kiss again, but in the last moment she grabbed Kim by the shoulders and pushed her under water.  
As the girl resurfaced, she had a playfully shocked expression on her face and splashed some water at her.

Trini narrowed her eyes and in the next moment the two of them were trying to pull the other under water and slashing each other.

  
At one point Kim dove down and Trini could feel her pull her under, but once she was underneath the surface she swam close to Kim's face pressing a quick peck on her lips.

They stared at each other for a moment, before both girls moved close again. Trini wrapped her arms around Kim's neck pulling her close while Kim let her hands wander on Trini's back.

She could feel her own hunger build for Kim again, as she mirrored what Kim had done a few moments ago and bit down on her bottom lip. The reaction was immediate. Kim's grip around her tightened and her nails dug into her back.

Completely entwined into each other they floated back to the surface and they only separated to grin at the other.

Trini's teeth started to clatter from the cold water surrounding them, even though she didn't feel cold at all. On the contrary, her insides felt warm and fuzzy.

Yet looking at their slowly turning blue finger tips they listened to their bodies disagreeing with the cold and started to swim back to shore.

  
Just as they had wrapped themselves into their towel, Zack and Jason came back from checking on his mother.

Seeing the dopey smiles on both of their faces and the fact that they were both drenched while wearing normal clothes, Zack started to wiggle with his eyebrows and to do a weird shoulder dance, causing Trini to stuck out his tongue to him

“Kim? Can I talk to you for a moment?” Jason asked, laughing about Zack's dancing and Trini's reaction to it.

“Sure.” A soft, reassuring smile appeared on her lips, but she turned away and Trini crawled into their tent. She wiggled herself out of the wet clothes, placed them outside on her towel again and put on some dry ones.

The unzipped sleepingbag over her, she turned to her side and stared at the dark tent wall only few inches away from her face. Too much had happened in the last few hours and her insides were bubbling over with happiness. She could still feel Kim move against her and just the memory made her heart beat speed up and smile creep on her face.

  
A while late, she heard Kim enter the tent and she stayed facing the wall, giving Kim the possibility to change and get settled.

When the rummaging next to her stopped she slowly turned around. Kim was sitting on her mat, her sleepingbag loosely thrown over her lap and checked her mobile phone.

As she saw that Trini had turned around, the soft smile that always managed to turn Trini's insides into mush appeared and she put down the phone.

The girl maneuvered herself next to Trini and her hand found her cheek, slowly stroking across it with her thumb.

“What did Jason want?”

“He wanted to know if we had resolved whatever happened before and if I had told you about my impression yet.”

Trini's fingers found the zipper of her sleepingbag and she started to play around with it. “Jason knows about yours?”

“Yes. I had to talk to someone about it. And he seemed like a good choice.”

Trini hummed under her touch of Kim hand on her cheek and placed her own hand on top of her's. “Can you tell me what it was?”

Kim laughed. “I'm not sure you are gonna like it.”

Worry immediately started to bubble up inside her and with it the thoughts that the impression was not about her. Her brain was already panicking and starting to doubt what had happened between them in the lake had been real.

Kim must have sensed that she was freaking out. The girl shifted closer towards her and gave her a quick, but demanding kiss. Her heart was no longer racing just from anxiety about Kim's impression.

“Don't worry. It's you. No doubt. It’s just.. “Kim laughed again, her fingers now caressing through her hair. “It's all so clear now. “

“Why? What did you get?”

“I saw a kitten, hissing a lot. With fur as yellow as the sun and its upper canines sticking out of its mouth.”

“That is so not me.” Trini pouted.

But Kim only laughed and pushed herself up on her elbows to kiss her again. Trini immediately forgot every last thought she had as she felt Kim still smiling into the kiss and could only throw her arms around the other girl, never wanting to let go again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is finally the second part. I've been working on it for a while and had planned to post it sooner, but life got in the way.  
> Hope you will like it. (:  
> (Also this is only partly proof-read, so sorry for any mistakes. Thanks Sara for sticking with me and my impatience..)

The next morning Trini woke up still feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Kim was still sleeping in her arms, her back pressed against Trini's front while she had wrapped her arm around Kim's waist. Her tank-top had been pushed up during the night and her skin felt hot against her arm. A part of her couldn't believe that this was really happening. That she had turned out to be Kim's soulmate as well and not just that Kim was hers. That this gorgeous vision of a woman was now sleeping soundly in her arm, snoring adorably on occasion.

  
The sun seemed to already be high in the sky from the way the inside of the tent had heated up, but Trini couldn't bring herself to leave Kim yet. So she nestled against her neck, her ear on Kim's back, listening to her steady heartbeat.

  
She was completely content to stay this way forever, but eventually the real world caught up to her, when Billy dipped his head inside the tent. “Oh good, Trini, you're awake. But.. am I interrupting?” His eyes flickered between her and Kim.

  
“No, it's fine.”, she smiled at him while she removed her arm from Kim's waist to wipe her hair out of her face. At the movement the girl next to her sighed and Trini was sure that a dopey grin was plastered on her face at the sound.

  
“I wanted to ask if you wanted to have breakfast with us.. and if you still have something to fresh eat that hasn't been sealed for months. All Zack has is crackers and gummy bears. We didn't pack enough stuff considering that we all like to eat so much.”

Lying next to Kim felt like a dream come true, but just by thinking about food her stomach growled. “I'll be out in a minute.”

The boy gave her a smile before he let the fly screen fall back down and disappeared from her sight.

Somehow she managed to pull her arm out from underneath Kim, but as Trini moved she rolled on her stomach and now her face was all squished with her mouth slightly opened and her hair a tangled mess. Trini couldn't believe how beautiful the girl in front of her still looked and it only made it harder to leave, but her stomach rumoring once again eventually made her step out of the tent.

The three boys were already up, Billy and Zack sitting around the fireplace, while Jason went through a few boxes and bags still lying on the back of the truck. “We brought this with us... “He held up a plastic crown. “But not enough food?” Slowly walking back to the fireplace he shook his head in disbelief.

“Hey, we have food.” Zack waved two packs of salty snacks around. ”Just not typical breakfast food.”

As he saw Trini crawling out of her tent a shit-eating grin appeared on his face. “Morning, crazy girl.”

“Morning.” She tried to comb out a few knots out of her hair while walking towards them.

“So..” His eyebrows wiggled as he watched her walk closer. “How was your night with Kimmie? You two were really quiet last night. I thought we would hear more of you two doing it.. you know.. “Zack then started to make noises, faces and motions that were definitely not G-rated.

Sighing helplessly Trini took the nearest towel and chucked it so hard in his face, that he flew backwards of his log, unfortunately still laughing as he was lying in the dirt. “Nothing happened, you pervert.”

“If you say so.”

 

When Kim got up a few minutes later, Zack looked like he was about to start making noises and pull faces again, but one glare from Trini seemed to show him that making fun of Trini was one thing, but making fun of Kim in front of Trini something else entirely and really not something to consider without good life-insurance. Instead he settled for a “Morning, Kim.” with only slightly mocking undertones.

“Morning, guys.” Kimberly's voice was raw and sleepy and together with the smile on her lips, Trini could already feel her heart speed up again, when a wave of gay panic over such beauty hit her without warning.

The girl stepped behind her and wrapped her arms around her as she leaned down, to kiss her cheek and purr in her ear. “Hey you.”

A deep blush crept on Trini's cheeks as she croaked a “Hey you.“ back as Kim sat down on the log next to her, flushed against her side.

“How was your night?” Billy called from their left.

“Very good. Thank you.” She slowly ran a hand through her hair and Trini had to concentrate really hard to keep breathing. “What about you? I hope you had a good night of sleep.”

“I slept very well. Except for the time Zack stuck his foot in my face, but Jason punched him and made him apologize for it, so it was good afterwards.”

“Good?!” Shocked Zack pulled up his shirt, revealing a big purple bruise on this ribcage that somehow hadn't healed yet. “It was so not on purpose. I was sleeping and that hurt like a mother-.”, with a side look to Billy he stopped himself and let his shirt fall back down. “Anyway, who wants a cracker?”

Trini didn't pay attention to him any longer, because Kim had taken her hand in hers and was now drawing small circles on the back, making it impossible for Trini to focus on anything but the tickling of her fingers on her skin.

 

They continued the day after a very nutritious breakfast, consisting out of gummy bears, crackers, various fruits and store-bought-waffles that Jason found in his backpack, with more reading, swimming and goofing around like the day before.

 

At one point Zack had insisted that they should have a quick round of chicken fight. That was how Trini found herself on Zack's shoulders as he wrapped his arms around her legs and got into fighting position. In front of them Kim on Jason's shoulders were mirroring their movements, both pairs slowly circling around each other. Billy had thought about joining for a moment, but had decided against it when it got too overwhelming. Now he stood at a safe distance, cheering for both teams.

Underneath her, Zack suddenly moved towards the others as they attacked. Kim's arms grabbed onto Trini's as she pushed against her shoulders. Zack was only holding onto one leg anymore, with the other hand he pushed against Jason's chest trying to get the other boy to lose balance. A strained smile appeared on Kim's lips as she tried to reposition herself to get a better position to hold onto Trini, but nothing seemed to work. Until her smile turned into a dangerous smirk that let a shiver run through Trini cause she knew that whatever Kim had planned wouldn't end very well for her.

In the next second, Kim changed position again, grabbing onto Trini's head pulling her in for a kiss. The moment Kim's lip pressed against hers, the world around her blurred and if asked she probably wouldn't even have remembered her own name. But then the lips disappeared again and Trini found herself chasing after them for a moment until a push against her shoulders made her loose her balance and she fell backwards, pulling the boy who was still holding onto her legs back into the water with her.

When she and Zack resurfaced, sputtering water, Jason and Kim, still on his shoulders, beamed down to them. “Ha. We won.”

“Won by playing dirty maybe. So not fair to use Trini's gayness against her, Kim.” Zack shook his head and then hurried away as Trini speed towards him ready to hurt him in every way possible.

“Run, Taylor.” She gave up chasing him as a better thought crossed her mind. Swimming back towards Jason and Kim, she motioned for Kim to join her in the water and the girl immediately slipped off of Jason's shoulders.

With a few strong strokes she was next to her and for one moment Trini pretended to wanting to kiss her, but then turned the tables by holding onto Kim's shoulders and unceremonially pushed her under water. Kim's surprised gasp made Jason turn his head in their direction and Zack came from who knows where and ran straight into Jason pulling the both of them below the surface.

When Kim came back up, she simply pushed her wet hair out of her face. “I probably deserved that.”

Trini wanted to answer, but she was paralyzed by the girl in front of her and how she ruffled her hair, the wet strands over her hair spraying water everywhere.

From the shore Billy called for Kim claiming to have a question and the girl swam a few meters before her feet reached the ground and she stood upright again walking the rest of the way.

As her upper body emerged from the surface, drops of water were running down her skin, while her bikini clung to her skin and Trini could only think back to the day before when she had to gotten to look at the same visual and she hurried to find the ground underneath her feet in case she forgot how to swim again.

Kim had now reached Billy and the two of them stood up to their knees in the water and for some reason Kim decided she needed to adjust her bikini top. The hard swallow from Trini was probably audible for miles and Zack standing a few feet away from her started to giggle. “Looks like someone here could use a cold shower.”

The next second the boy was tackled by Trini and when the two of them resurfaced a few moments later he had a black eye that definitely hadn't been there before.

 

A little while later Trini sat on her towel on the pier, a book in her hand and Kim's head in her lap. She hadn't turned a page in probably thirty minutes and she still didn't know what the paragraph that she was trying to read was about.

“Hey, Trin.”

She only hummed as answer trying to pretend her attention hadn't been with Kim the entire time.

“Can I ask you something?”

Sighing in surrender, giving up on reading any more of her book, she snapped it shut, placed it next to her and started to run her fingers through Kim's still damp hair. “Sure. What is it?”

Kim closed her eyes under Trini's touch. “I was just wondering what the plan is?”

“What plan?”, a puzzled expression spread over her face.

“Like the plan with us. Are we gonna tell our parents? And what about school?”

She had to admit she hadn't allowed herself to think about anything else than the nice little bubble she and her friends were in at the moment. “I don't know.” she answered honestly.

“Well, what do you want?” The girl lifted her head out of her lap, turned on her stomach and looked at Trini expectantly, her head propped up on her elbows.

“You.” Trini found herself answering softly, before she could stop herself, but as a faint red colored Kim's cheeks she didn't mind any longer having admitted that. “I mean, I don't think my parents would be very supportive of us. My mother is already dreading letting me hang out with you, if she knew that it was... more, she would probably forbid me from seeing you.” Gently her fingers picked up a strand of Kim's hair that had fallen in her face to push it back behind her ear, her hand she kept lingering on her cheek. “Not that that would stop me though.”

Kim shifted again, sitting up and crawling next to her, her hand chasing after Trini's as she had pulled it back when she had moved. “I don't want you to get in trouble with your parents. So no telling your parents. For now?”

She nodded. “That's probably for the best. What about yours?”

“I think they would be okay with us. They always say they just want me to be happy and when I tell them that you are what make me happy, then they have to accept that.”

Happiness spread through her, she was glad that Kim had such supportive parents, but she would have been lying if she said she hadn't felt the sting in her chest when she thought about her own parents and their ignorance. All she wanted was to be supported and not be treated like she was wrong in any way, was that really too much to ask? “So we are gonna tell your parents?”

“Do you want to do it with me?”

“No.” Panic was already spreading through her, thinking about Kim's parents and the ways they could murder her for being with their daughter. But under Kim's curious glance she felt braver than usual. “I mean.. not really. But if you want to do it together, we can do it together.”

Kim chuckled. “It's fine. I will tell them about us sometime during the next days. Family reunions are a great place to deliver news, because you know they won't dare to freak out in front of everyone.”

Dread was all she felt when she thought about the fact that Kim was supposed to leave tomorrow morning for a four-day trip with her parents to a family-reunion as birthday-celebration for some distance relative Kim swore she had maybe seen twice before in her life. They were scheduled to come back some time on Saturday before school started again on Monday.

That reminded Trini. “What about school?”

“We should probably keep it to ourselves there as well. The chances that someone will blab to your family about us are too high.” Kim scratched her head in thought. “And I really don't want someone to destroy what little freedom you do get from your parents. Cause that meant not being able to do this.”

Trini was about to ask what Kim meant with this, but the words never left her mouth. Instead she felt Kim's lips press against hers and her hands tangle into her hair. With her heart racing at hundred miles per hour, she lowered her hand on Kim's arm and kissed her back.

 

As the sun started to set they broke off their tents, collected all their belongings lying around and packed everything on the back of the truck again.

Just like on the drive into the woods, Trini found herself squished between Zack, Kim and bags on the truck bed, only this time, she was cuddled against Kim, their hands and legs intertwined.

It had been clear from the beginning of their friendship that Kim was someone who was always touching other people. Especially Trini. At first she had figured that this was just part of who Kim was, and Trini had to fight with herself to allow the little touches that made the palms of her hand sweat and gave her the feeling that her chest was going to burst. But now that she knew that Kim had had a reason for all the moments during which her fingers lingered on her skin too long or she sat pressed too close against Trini’s side. And Trini couldn't get enough of it. The moment they separated everything inside her ached to just be near her again.

Zack's home was the first one they passed and the boy collected his bags and jumped off the truck.

“See you later.” He waved as he walked back into the trailer park.

Before Jason started to drive again, he turned around to the back of thetruck. “Trini, you're next.”

Kim's embrace around her immediately tightened and an adorable pout spread across her face.

Just before they were supposed to drive into her street, Jason stopped the car next to the road and Jason called from the front. “You have five minutes. My dad's waiting for me.” He then turned the radio up, maybe a bit too loud. Trini's heart swelled by the kind gesture of her friend.

Still clinging to each other Kim murmured into her hair. “I'm gonna miss waking up with you.”

She couldn't stop the chuckled that escaped her throat. “You were always asleep when I got up.”

“Yes, and it was very rude of you to just leave me there.” Kim pressed a quick peck on her lips. “Twice.”

The faked outrage on Kim's face was too adorable and Trini pulled her close again in a sloppy kiss, into which she tried to place all her desperation about having to say goodbye to Kim for so long. By the sigh that Kim let out and the way she pulled their bodies even closer together Trini figured she got the message.

Too soon the truck underneath them started to move again making them separate with fast going breaths.

As Jason stopped in front of her house, Trini hesitantly let go of Kim's hand, the spaces between her fingers already started to feel empty and cold when a shiver ran through her body as she collected her things and climbed off of the truck.

Her mother opened the door, as she was still about six feet away from the doorstep, the forced smile on her face made Trini immediately want to turn around and leave again.

From behind her she could hear her friends all mumble some Goodbyes and Hellos before Jason started the engine again and drove off, with Trini not possessing the strength to watch Kim leave.

As she stepped inside the house, her brothers and her father actually seemed happy about her safe return, by greeting her with hugs.

Her mother seemed to be burning with questions again, but she did take her time asking them. “How was it? Did you have fun? What did you do all day?”

She could already feel the look her father was giving her mother behind her back, but not wanting to create drama the minute she walked inside the door she force a smile on her face. “It was very nice. We had a lot of fun. We didn't really do much besides swimming, reading, just hanging out, you know?”

“Hanging out? That -”

“That's very good to hear. That you had fun.” Her father interrupted her mother.

“Thank you for letting me go with them.” The smile she gave her parents now was honest and sincere. She was truly grateful for being allowed to go, otherwise the pining over Kim, that she now knew had been mutual, would have very likely continued for a long time.

“Of course, mija. We are really glad that you finally found friends here.”  
Escaping from probably the weirdest conversation she had ever had with her parents, Trini ran upstairs to her room.

Just as she was done unpacking all her stuff, sorting it into what had to be washed and what could be just put away like her sleeping bag, her phone lying on her bed buzzed. It was a text from Kim and her heart jumped as she read her name flash across the screen. The text said that she just got home and that she was already missing her.

She threw herself on her bed, quickly replying while she couldn't believe that it was really happening, that she truly had found her.

 

The four days without Kim turned out to be not as terrible as Trini had expected them to be. She still missed her, but with her friends keeping her busy and Kim texting and calling as often as possible, the lonely days were bearable. Kim often updated her about her weird smelling aunts and loud cousins, while the boys forced Trini to hang out with them, instead just allowing her to sit hovered over her phone all day.

Together they finally fixed up the hole in Trini's ceiling and painted over the newly plastered spots. Trini met Zack's mother for the first time, the one time Zack had talked her into getting something from his trailer while they were out in the mountains. Furthermore Jason and Zordon had officially decided to start with the training again, and they spent a lot of hours, hitting each other with and without armor, with and without weapons.

 

Kim got back the afternoon of the last Saturday before school started again. Her parents just dropped her off, since they had decided to take the weekend for themselves and spent it somewhere out of town, to recover from the family-reunion.

The moment Trini got the text with Kim asking her if she wanted to come over since her parents had left, Trini was out the door, jacket only pulled up on one arm, shoes-laces not even in an attempt of a knot.

When she arrived at Kim's place around twenty minutes later, her breath was still going heavy from running half across town, but she was sure that her heart wasn't just beating fast from the exercise.

The seconds between her ringing the bell and Kim opening the door, seemed to tick away much too slow, but when she finally stood in front of her she was sure the world had stopped spinning.

A towel around her shoulders and her hair still wet from a shower, she grinned at Trini, only to grab ahold of her wrist and pull her inside the house. Her hand slipped down and slowly interlaced their fingers as Kim placed a quick peck on Trini's lips, her cold, wet hair tickling her cheeks. “Missed you.” She was practically purring now and Trini didn't find enough strength inside her to respond with more than a croaked “Missed you too.” before her lips found Kim's again.

 

In the back-pocket of her jeans Trini's phone buzzed, to remind both of them that outside a world still existed. She removed the hand that had mysteriously found its way onto Kim's hip and checked her phone. “It's Zack, asking what our plans are for tonight.”

In that moment her phone buzzed again. “He claims we can kiss later, but now we should hang out with them.”

“I mean..” Kim had leaned towards her, now whispering in her ear, causing shivers to run through her body. “We can totally make out even with the boys here. I don't think they would mind.” Her lips were now wandering down her jawline, and if Trini had been able to move she would have texted Zack back to find someone else to annoy. But instead Kim's kisses stopped too soon and the girl took her phone out of her still paralyzed hand. She quickly typed out a text back to Zack, before handing it back to Trini. While Trini checked what Kim had written, the girl disappeared down the hallway. _Movie night at Kim's. Be there in an hour. Bring snacks. Tell the others._

“I need to wash away all the family drama I saw in the past days.” Kim called from the other room. “And shock therapy with my four favorite maniacs seems like a great plan for that, don't you think?” Her head appeared in the doorway, one hand now attempting to dry her hair with the towel.

Trini had to agree, nothing made her forget about the stuff going on with her family like being with her friends. “Sure.”

The girl then reappeared in the hallway, pulling over her jacket, phone and car-key in one hand. “We have nothing to eat here and I doubt that what the boys bring will be very delicious, if they remember to bring something at all.”

“So we have to go get something?”

“You got it.” She wrapped an arm around Trini as she let her hands wander into Kim's still damp hair, pulling her down to her. Somehow she seemed to have finally found some courage again.

“I really missed you.” Trini hummed, her lips barely touching Kim's. “Four days with just the guys... were intense.. but lonely.”

The coy smirk on Kim's lips she could feel into their kiss. “Lonely, huh?” Her arms were now both wrapped around her middle, urging her to get even closer, as she gently moved against her.

It took them embarrassingly long to get out of the door and into the car. And even in the car they didn't stop holding hands for one moment. Thank the gods for automatic.

Trini found it weirdly fascinating watching the girl next to her drive. There was nothing as captivating as how her eyes flicked from watching the road to looking at her for just a moment and when she caught her staring a faint blush spread over her face.

 

Inside the supermarket, Kim took a shopping cart and started to push it down the aisle when Trini finally remembered a question she had been dying to ask. “How did it go with your parents? Did you tell them about... this?”

“Do you think we need orange juice?” She held up a bottle in her direction. “Probably for breakfast tomorrow.”

Nervousness started to rise inside her, as Kim avoided the question, but after she had placed two bottled of orange juice in their cart and started to keep walking deeper into the store she finally answered her. “I did tell them. They want to meet you.”

Her voice was nonchalant and she didn't seem to really mind what she was telling her, while Trini was already freaking out inside. “Meet me?”

“Yup.” Kim held up two different colored bags of some sort of snack Trini couldn't concentrate on at all. “Doritos or cheerios? Probably both.”

“But..” Completely stunned and panicking her feet stopped working; her breath was going shallow and fast.

“Not both?” The girl, still holding snacks in her hands finally looked up to Trini who was standing several feet behind her and saw how much she was freaking out. Quickly she threw the bags back onto a shelf and walked back to her. “What's wrong?”

Standing there frozen, she only managed to open and close her mouth like a fish on dry land, not a word leaving her lips.

“Is this about my parents?” Her hands were on her upper arms, gently rubbing over the fabric of her jacket.

Still unable to do anything Trini just nodded.

“No reason to freak out about. They are cool. They just want to meet you; they won't rip your head off.”

Kim's smoothing words did manage to calm her down a bit, but the panic was still there. “No?”

“No.” She smiled reassuringly. “My mom said she wanted to meet the girl who made her daughter be in such a dopey mood and constantly grin at her phone. Does that sound like someone who wants to murder you?”

She had to admit that that indeed didn't sound very threatening. Again she just shook her head.

“But if you don't feel ready you don't have to meet them yet.”

The knot in her throat shrunk as the warmth of Kim's hands seeped through her jacket onto the skin of her arms. “No.” She had to clear her throat before continuing. ”I can meet them. I just can't promise that I will be able to do much more than just smile and nod.”

“They will love you no matter what you do.” Before she returned to their shopping cart she pressed her lips gently against her cheek. “Now, please help me decide on a salty snack.”

 

When they got to the aisle with the frozen foods, Kim told Trini to pick an ice cream flavor while she went back to the snacks, picking up another bag of peanut puffs as they remembered that Billy loved those more than life itself.

When she got back, Trini was still standing in front of the refrigerator, her lips pursed, tapping her chin with her finger.

Strong arms wrapped around her waist, hot breath tickling in her ear. “You're cute, but please decide on something.”

She leaned into the touch as Kim rested her head onto her shoulder. “But I can't. Everyone likes something else.”

Her breath hitched when Kim started to press soft little kisses against the side of her neck. Quickly she looked down the aisle in both directions checking for any person who could possibly be watching them. There was no one in sight but out of the corner of her eyes she still saw the security camera above their heads. “Kim?”

“What?” she asked all innocently. Her voice muffled since she was still pressing her lips against her skin.

“That doesn't help me decide at all.” Trini admitted honestly, but as Kim's lips stopped moving against her, she missed the warmth immediately. “Don't stop.”

Kim giggled into her ear and then took the decision from her, by just picking out a box with three different flavors of ice cream. “So now that we decided that...”

Trini was half expecting her to continue the sentence with that they were gonna go to the register now or something similar. What she didn't except was that Kim just grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her again the refrigerator. Trapping Trini's body with one hand resting on the cool glass and the other one on her chin, she guided her head upwards to press their lips together.

Immediately Trini's hands slipped underneath Kim's unzipped jacket, circling her waist to pull her closer.

The crackling of the store-speaker coming alive about their heads brought them back down from their cloud. “No making out in the frozen food aisle please.”

Trini immediately felt the heat climbing into her face, but Kim just laughed, released Trini from her embrace and continued to push the shopping cart as if nothing had happened.

For the rest of the shopping trip Trini didn't dare to look up, afraid someone inside the store might recognize her as one of the people who had made out against the refrigerator.

 

The ice cream was melted when they finally got back to Kim's place and the boys were already in front of her house. Zack was lying dramatically on this back on the front stairs his head hanging from one of the steps. “Finally. We were about to send out a search party. Where were you so long?”

“We had to buy something to feed all of our hungry mouths.” Kim tossed a bag of gummyworms in his direction and waved all of them closer to help her unload the trunk.

Once inside Billy insisted that PJ's were mandatory and the three boys disappeared to change, only to walk back into the living room wearing PJ's in their respective ranger color. Billy in a terrycloth-PJ in dark blue, Zack in top and shorts in all black and Jason wore a red shirt and checked pants in red and white.

“I don't have any PJ's here.” Trini realized while watching the boys get comfortable.

“Mind filling those into bowls?” Kim handed her two packages of snacks. “I'll go find something for you to wear.”

“Sure.”

“Bowls are in the bottom cupboard to your left.” Kim's voice resounded from the other room, as if she had seen that Trini was standing a little helpless in front of the kitchen counter.

A few minutes later Kim reappeared now dressed in a skin-tight tank top and pink shorts, an outfit that made breathing a little harder for Trini. “I put some things on my bed; just pick what fits the best.”

“Thanks.” Upon entering Kim's room, she found a variety of shirts and shorts on the bed. All in a different shade of pink.

Hesitantly she picked an oversized shirt and shorts that fit her well, folding her own things neatly on Kim's desk chair. She then quickly sent her mother a text saying she was staying over at Zack's knowing that their movie night could easily last the entire night, but her mother would have a fit if she knew she was at Kim's.

When Trini walked back into the living room, Billy, Jason and Kim had taken over the entire couch. Zack was now lying on the carpet on this stomach, head resting on his propped up arms, while Billy had his legs placed over Jason's lap and Kim sitting cross-legged next to them.

“Trini, come join me on the floor, where the cool people sit.” Zack side eyed the three on the couch dramatically but then grinned up to Trini. “Nice outfit.”

“Oh, you're wearing Kim's color.” Billy smiled at her as Trini adjusted nervously her shirt.

“Yes, somehow Kim only had pink things for me to choose from.”  
Kim only shrugged while smirking at her. “You look cute.”

“I look like an oversized pink marshmallow.”

“Well marshmallow, sit down so we can start the movie.” Zack called from the floor, waving with the remote.

She found a free spot on the floor and sat up against the couch. Warm hands from the couch settled on her shoulders as Kim leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “You're a very cute pink marshmallow.” With gentle fingers she cupped Trini's chin guiding her head in her direction to meet her lips with hers. Suddenly Trini didn't mind at all being dressed in only Kim's color. Her hand wandered in Kim's hair, tangling her fingers in her hair, trying to keep her close as she turned her upper body towards Kim and the couch.

Too soon someone clearing their throat made them separate and as the two girls looked around, they found Billy, Jason and Zack staring at them.

Jason and Billy only looked amused while Zack's grin was more mischievous. “You done?”

“Nope. You took our alone time so we will make out all we want even with you present.” Kim declared and returned to sitting up straight, but not before giving Trini another kiss that made her brain feel dizzy and whole body tingle.

Her hands stayed on Trini's shoulders wandering more and more into her hair, to comb through it gently as the night progressed, making it impossible for Trini to concentrate on anything but her touches.

 

By the time the third movie was flickering over the screen most of them were asleep. Zack was knocked out on the floor, his head on his arms, while Billy and Jason heads were resting against each other. Trini had been almost asleep, leaning uncomfortable on the couch, when Kim carefully woke her by pressing kisses along her jawline while crouching in front of her. “Hey beautiful. You awake?”

“I am now.” She mumbled against her, leaning into the touch.

“Are you in the mood for ice cream?”

At the latest at that question Trini was wide awake. “Always.”

They tiptoed out of the living room into the dark kitchen, trying not to wake the boys. Kimberly flicked on a small light, took two spoons from a drawer and the ice cream from the freezer. Handing one spoon to Trini she pushed herself up to sit on top the kitchen counter placing the frozen goodness between them.

After removing the plastic seal they both dug in. At first they shared only sweet glances, but at one point Kim decided she had to be a teasing little shit again and started to lick the ice from her spoon very slowly while not breaking eye contact with Trini. Needless to say Trini choked while swallowing and blamed her coughing on brain-freeze. The smug expression on the face of the girl on the counter-top gave away that she didn't believe her at all.

“Come here.” Kim's voice was low and sweet as she gestured for Trini to come closer.

Nervously she stepped in between Kim's legs. Unsure what to do with her hands as Kim pulled her closer, she placed them on top of her thighs, fully expecting Kim to shove them off the next moment. But instead Kim only bit her lower lip stroking slowly over Trini's cheeks with one hand while her other still weaponized with the spoon, shoved another portion of ice in her mouth.

While pulling the spoon out of her mouth, her hand moved into her neck urging her to come closer.

Kim sighed as Trini connected her lips with hers. Her lips were warm and cold at the same time and she tasted of ice cream and something so incredibly Kim that Trini's knees got wobbly.

Feeling dizzy from how Kim moving against her felt, her hands shot out grabbing onto Kim's hips pulling the girl even closer. Kim seemed to have thrown away her spoon, since her arm was now wrapped around Trini's waist.

“I'm really glad we took this camping trip.” Kim hummed against her lips and Trini had to grin.

“Me too.” Trini's fingers were playing with the hem of Kim's top as they separated, just enough to look at the other. “Do you think we should thank Zack for messing with me and trying to get me to reveal my impression?”  
Strands of hair wiggled as Kim shook her head. “Definitely not. That would only make his big ego grow even more.”

“Without him asking about impressions at the fireplace, would you have figured out it was me?”

“Oh, I already knew.” Unimpressed Kim jumped off the counter-top, putting the lid back onto the ice cream and shoving it back into the freezer.

Standing dumbfound in the kitchen Trini watched how Kim exited the kitchen only to disappear into the bathroom a few doors down.

“What do you mean you already knew?” When she finally was able to move her body again she followed Kim.

The bathroom door wasn't closed and allowed her glance to fall on Kim who was currently brushing her teeth, mumbling something incomprehensible.

“What?”

Instead of answering directly Kim shoved a package with an unused yellow toothbrush in her hand. She then tilted her head back to let out a gurgling “Later.”, shielding her mouth with her hand trying to avoid spitting toothpaste everywhere.

Trini had to be content with this answer for now and started to brush her teeth.

When Kim was done she left the bathroom, but not before telling Trini she was waiting in her bed for her. Naturally Trini had another cough-fit and sadly she couldn't blame it on ice cream this time and had to watch the coy smirk on Kim's lips as she walked out of the room.

 

Her heart was already racing as she entered Kim's room a few minutes later, but when the girl simply grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and pushed her down onto her bed, her head stopped completely. Kim was next to her the next second her fingers tracing her jawline as she connected her lips with Trini's again. Quickly she readjusted her position from simply lying on her back, facing Kim, her hand on her upper arm. She couldn't get enough of kissing Kim. It made her head spin, while her skin tingled and her chest felt like it was bursting with something that the words glee and satisfaction didn't even begin to describe. Having the girl in her arms made the world around her blurry and irrelevant. All that mattered was her.

 

Their kissing soon started to get sloppy as a wave of tiredness hit them, nestled together in the warm bed.

Soon they lay facing each other, Kim's leg thrown over hers, while they were holding hands between their bodies.

The conversation from the bathroom slipped back into Trini's mind just as she was about to close her eyes.

“Kim?”

The girl only hummed in acknowledgement, her eyes remained closed.

“What did you mean earlier? When you said you already knew about me and your impression?” Her thumb was slowly stroking across Kim's.

She nestled closer to her before answering. “Exactly that.”

Her brain still couldn't comprehend what she was trying to tell her.“ You knew my impression was about you?”

She laughed. “No, I knew my impression was about you.”

“Why didn't you say anything?” Taken back by her answer, Trini tilted her head to side.

“Probably the same reason you didn't tell me about me being your impression.”

Her answer forced her to think for a moment, considering how she phrased her next question. “So when did you know? You know, that it was about me?”

“When we were down in the quarry after Billy blew up the mine. When you were standing on the cliff above us and yelled at us about this being a restricted area.” Kim finally opened her eyes and Trini felt herself getting lost in their warm expression. She bit her lip for a moment before continuing. “You wore that yellow beanie of yours and I heard your voice and.. I don't know.. I just knew that it was you.”

“But.. you have seen me before.. and you have heard me talk.. in biology.”

“Probably, but back then I was too busy being a stuck up bitch and you weren't yelling at me. Well hissing, you know? Like a kitten.” Kim's giggle send a shiver down her spin and she didn't mind anymore that Kim's impression saw her as a kitten. She had to appreciate the irony, after all she knew that she liked to talk big, but now in Kim's arms her self-confidence was reduced to a puddle. And somehow she didn't mind at all. “When did you know?”

“When Rita was attacking Angel Grove with Goldar and you flew above your heads in your Zord.”

Something in Kim's astounded expression told her that she couldn't believe her. “It took you so long to figure out that the pink dinosaur meant me?”

Trini could only shrug with her shoulders. She knew that it had taken her a few days to figure out that it had been Kim, but was she really to blame for not believe that a seemingly straight girl could be her soulmate?

Furthermore she had been occupied with trying to wrap her brain about the whole becoming a Power Ranger and save the world thing. “There was a lot going on and I was used to stay away from anything pink really.”

“Did your mom make you?”

She nodded. “Kinda. But I made myself stay away too. Was easier that way. Less drama.”

“I'm sorry, Trin.” Kim's eyes glistened in the darkness.

“It's alright.”, she tried to reassure her. “I did find you. Even with my mother., and me working against it.”

Trini could hear that Kim was trying to keep her voice steady, but it shook and broke nonetheless as she spoke. “Are you happy that you found me?”

“Never been happier.” Leaning forward she pressed a desperate kiss onto Kim's lips trying to tell her just how much she meant what she had said. She then pulled a blanket over the two of them, crawled ever closer to Kim and soon both girls feel asleep, their hands still linked together between them.

 

Sleep was still holding her tight and made her bones feel heavy as Trini woke the next morning. Someone's steady breath was tickling in her ear and when she turned her head slightly she saw Kim's relaxed face. The girl was still fast asleep, her hair a wild mess over her face while her arm was flung over Trini's upper arm.

Watching Kim so at ease always made her chest feel like it was about to bust with pride and happiness and just pure joy.

After a while the girl beside her started to stir and she scrunched her nose causing a wave of butterflies to erupt in Trini's stomach. But then she moved her arm abruptly and the next thing Trini felt was a jolt of pain running through her as Kim hit her in the nose. Letting out a wave of Spanish curse words that would make her grandmother turn in her grave she sat up, her hand shielding her nose as her slammed eyes shut.

“Wha-” Next to her a sleepy and raw voice resounded. “Shit. Trini, did I hit you?” Then a warm hand was placed on her back as Kim sat up as well.

“You sure did. Great hook even when half asleep.” Trini tried to joke as her nose was still throbbing with pain.

“I'm so sorry.” She felt Kim's fingers carefully tracing her chin, slowly turning her head towards her and pushing her hand away.

Trini was finally able to open her eyes again as the pain eased with every heartbeat could. She saw Kim's eyes wander up and down her nose, slightly making her tilt her head to get a better view. “Doesn't look broken. And no blood, that's good. Does it still hurt?”

Trini decided to play the victim card and started to pout while nodding with big sad eyes.

Guilt was still shimmering in Kim's eyes but now a glimpse of amusement flashed in them. “Come here you. I'm very sorry.” She opened her arms wide to allow Trini to throw herself in them and guided them back down onto the pillow.

“Morning.” Kim's chest vibrated against Trini's ear as she spoke.

“Morning.” Tilting her head back she pressed against Kim's lips which tasted slightly of morning breath but still so much like her that she didn't mind.

Untangling herself from Kim's embrace she pushed herself further up to get a better look at the girl next to her and to rest her head on Kim’s arm which she had sprawled over her pillow. “How did you sleep?”

“Very good. You?” Kim's hand started to play with a strand of her hair.  
She hummed underneath the touch. “Very good as well. Your bed is very.. comfortable.” A thought crossed her mind and caused a grin to flash over her face. “Slept better than Zack on your floor, that's for sure. And I bet Jason and Billy have aching necks today from the position they feel asleep in.”

A knock on the door made them stop staring at each other. “You decent in there?” A voice asked sounded muffled through the door.

Trini rolled her eyes and turned on her back to be able to look at the door while Kimberly answered with a quick “Yes.”.

Her breath hitched as a very coy looking Kim slipped a hand underneath her shirt to rest on her stomach as the door opened and Zack walked in. He shielded his eyes with his hand and peaked through his fingers, before allowing to fall to his side again as he saw that they were at least covered by a blanket, the clothes they were wearing not visible to him.

A smug expression appeared on his face, that reminded Trini too much of Kim when the girl planned evil things and in the next moment the boy ran towards the bed and threw himself backward on top of the two of them.

Staring at the ceiling he let out a huffed: “What's for breakfast?”, but neither of the girls were listening.

Zack jumping on the bed had caused Kim's hand that had been resting on Trini's belly to ride up and were now currently squished underneath Zack while her fingers pressed against the underside of Trini's right breast. She was definitely not wearing a bra and as Kim struggle to pull her hand out from underneath Zack didn't help at all. Instead it made her only touch more of Trini's sensitive skin. Trini was definitely no longer breathing and Kim was full on red. Zack still didn't seem to notice anything that was going on and in a desperate last attempt Trini just shoved the boy off of them and caused him to fall to the floor with a dull thud.

Kim quickly pulled her hand away, sitting up with both hands pressed against herself, shaking her still very flushed head. “Pancakes?”, she managed to cough out after clearing her throat a few times.

Zack was still sitting on the floor, looking slightly confused from Trini rudely pushing him onto the floor and a very flustered Kim with speech problems, but he seemed to decide against asking what all of this was about when he got up and ran out of the room yelling about pancakes.

Finally able to move from feeling frozen lying on her back, Trini shook herself and sat up, while thinking that of course it had to be Zack to get them to the next base. At least she thought she had just thought it, until Kim started sound like she was about to die of laughter while she was getting out of bed. “Did I say that out loud?”

“Yes. Yes, you did.” The girl seemed to have trouble walking straight as her body was still shaking with laughter and she had to hold onto the door-frame for a solid minute. Her face still a deep red, but Trini was sure that the color on her cheek was just as bright.

 

When their faces finally returned to their normal color they made their way into the kitchen where the three boys had already try to collect some of the ingredients to make pancakes, but were still missing the flour and a bowl.

Kim and Jason took it upon themselves to prepare breakfast while the three others started to tidy up the mess they had created in the living room and set the table for everyone.

After collecting empty bags and the bigger crumbs it was clear pretty fast that the room had to be vacuumed at one point since at various spots someone had managed to step onto popcorn, effectively crumbling it into the carpet.

 

While eating their different eating habits reappeared. While Billy, Trini and Zack drowned their pancakes in syrup, Kim and Jason took theirs with powder sugar and some freshly cut strawberries.

 

Soon after they had eaten and cleaned the kitchen as much as possible the three boys left, claiming they all had to prepare some stuff before school started again tomorrow.

Trini on the other hand stayed and helped Kim tidy up the house as much as possible before her parents returned home, not wanting them to find their house in a mess.

After they had finished cleaning and changed back into normal clothes they snuggled together onto the couch, starting to watch another movie not ready to say goodbye for the day to the other just yet as a car pulled up into the driveway.

Trini was already freaking out internally as Kim mentioned nonchalant that that were most likely her parents. Her body tensed up and she entangled herself from Kim her mind running in overdrive about what Kimberly's parents might to do her if they found her this close to their daughter.

Looking slightly startled at the loss of touch Kim's eyes searched for hers.“You okay?” She could see them glistening with worry.

“Yes. Just.. “She fiddled on the seam of her shirt. “Nervous I guess.”

The worry in Kim's eyes melted away and a soft smile took its place as she took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “It's gonna be fine.”

Feeling Kim's warm hand in hers helped to calm her down a bit, but the voices in her head were still yelling at her to get out and get away from the people who were about to murder her for corrupting their kids.

But then a key was turned in the lock of the front down and two people walked inside the hallway chattering for a moment before entering the living room each pulling a suitcase behind them.

“Hey girls.” The man said smiling at both of them and Trini's mouth was suddenly very dry as the two people standing in the doorway exchanged a look. She hurried to stand up from the couch, letting go off Kim's hand in the process. Next to her Kim got up as well walking towards her parents hugging and giving them a quick peck on the cheek as greeting.

“You must be Trini.” Still standing awkwardly next to the couch, Trini hurried towards the woman extending her hand.

“Nice to meet you.”

With an amused expression Kim's parents shook her hand. Kimberly was standing next to her father who had one arm around her shoulders.  
“You were right, Kimmie. She is really pretty.”

Trini was sure that the blush that crawled on Kim's cheeks had the same color as her face hearing that comment.

“I.. “ Trini cleared her throat. “I should go. My mother is probably already waiting for me and I should prepare some stuff for tomorrow.”

Kim cocked her head, the worry from before back in her eyes. “You sure?”

She nodded and tried to give her brightest smile which was only half successful.

“Well, Trini. It was very nice to finally put a face to all the good things Kimberly has been telling us about you.” Kim's mother placed a hand on her upper arm and the warm expression that glistening in her eyes was so similar to how Kim looked at her sometimes. “I would very much like if you would join us for dinner soon, so we can get to know you a little better.”

“Yes. I.. I would like that.” Trini was proud of herself for pressing the words out and even in non-muffled and audible volume.

She then started to walk pass them and out of the room, but was quickly caught up by Kim running after her.

“Let me walk you to the door.” Her hand wandered down her arm, until Kim had interlaced their fingers again.

Stopping awkwardly in front of the door, Trini opened it after a few silent moments and was ready to walk outside as Kim's grip on her hand tightened.

“Aren't you forgetting something?”

Confused she turned around. She was pretty sure she had collected all of the things she had brought with her yesterday. “What?”

“This.” And then Kim's lips were pressed against her making her almost forget that she was trying to leave. Almost. But the thought of Kim's parents very likely waiting for her daughter to return was still in the back of her mind and as captivating the feeling of kissing Kim was she quickly ended the kiss. Kim had still her eyes closed and her hands were looking for Trini as she pulled away and started to jog away.

“See you tomorrow.” She could hear the amusement in Kim's voice and mid run she turned around waving to her before disappearing down the street to the sound of the door being closed behind her.

 

The next morning, Trini felt like a zombie wandering into the school, after having to get up too early after two weeks of sleeping in. Only the sight of Kim leaning casually against her locker managed to wake her up a little bit. The urge of just pulling the girl close and kiss her till they were both aching for air was strong, but instead she turned her hands into fists, her nails digging in her skin reminding herself to not lose control. She had to live with the fact that during school hours they wouldn't be able to do anything except tiny touches and smiles while pretending that they were friends. Just friends.

Trini's nails might have drawn blood when Kim ruffled through her hair and smirked at her. “Morning, Trini.”

“Morning.” She had to swallow before she could continue. “Kim.”

“Ready for school again?”

“Not at all.” With a few twists of her lock she opened her locker and started to look through her books, trying to find the one she needed for her first class. “How about you?”

“I could think of better things to do all day.”

Trini could feel Kim's eyes staring at her but she didn't trust herself to meet them, not if Kim was talking with that sweet, sticky voice.

“What...” She coughed. “What did your parents say yesterday? After I was gone?”

“That they can see why I... like you so much.” Kim was playing with her bag.

“But they were worried they had spooked you.”

“I'm sorry about running away so fast. I was just so nervous. I.. I'm not used to supportive parents.”

She could feel Kimberly tense next to her even though they weren't touch. The girl had now turned to her and she could see how strong she was clenching her jaw by the way her jaw muscles hardened. The knuckles on the hand she had wrapped around the handle of her beg were white and Trini allowed herself to touch Kim just for a moment. Reassuringly like Kim did for her the day before she squeezed her hand.

“Hey. Relax.”

“I... You just deserve... Your parents... Ugh.” No coherent sentence seemed to want to leave Kim's mouth and Trini had to fight the urge of pulling Kim in a hug in the middle of the hallway. She knew what Kim was trying to say, but she wasn't really in the mood to talking about it in that moment so she hurried to find a different topic.

“Kim? The dinner your mother talked about. Maybe we could do that soon.”

With a few deep breaths Kim seemed to calm down again. “I will talk to my parents about it, okay?”

Trini nodded, as she finally found the book she had been looking for and slipped it into her backpack.

“I really want to kiss you.” Kim's words were quiet and Trini was sure only she could have heard them in the noisy hallway, but she still froze even if the panic about someone dropping ears wasn't just the only paralyzing thing.

Not posseting enough strength to answer, she simply bit down on her lower lip while staring at Kim, only to watch her eyes widen for a second, causing a smirk to appear on her face. Just as she was about to answer a voice called from behind them.

“Kim, let's go. We have class on the side of campus.” Jason was standing a few feet away from them, theatrically pointing to his watching.

“We'll continue this later.” Kim's voice was barely a whisper but it was enough to send a shiver down Trini's spine and she managed to squish her fingers in her locker door as she slammed it shut while making the mistake of watching Kim walk away.

Mumbling a few curses under her breath while shaking her hand and blowing air on the throbbing fingers she moved through the masses of students around her trying to make her way to her first class.

 

Her morning went by too slowly with not being able to see Kim at all. The only silver lining was the one class she shared with Billy and since they were friends now they sat together in the back and the lesson went by a little bit quicker with watching him organize his pencils and the occasional smile he gave her.

At lunch she finally saw the rest of their group when they all ate together, with Kim sitting as close as possible they were able to hold hands underneath the table, their bodies shielding their interlinked fingers from the world.

Thankfully she had only two more classes after lunch and one of them was bio, so she would be able to stare at Kim's beautiful head from behind a little more. The sneaky glances they shared happened so often that Trini started to wonder how no one noticed that Kim was practically staring at the back of the classroom more than to the front.

 

Her week went by pretty unspectacular. Kim kept being a freaking tease during school hours, by looking at her with dark eyes, biting her lips, ruffling through her hair, smirking at her with an expression that Trini knew could only mean trouble. Trini was sure that Kim was trying to drive her insane.

Jason had ordered training on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and Trini would be lying, if she said she wouldn't use those hours down in the pit trying to get as much skin contact with Kim as possible. Even if that meant getting her ass kicked by the taller girl. The shorts she always wore weren't helping her concentrate either. If black eyes, cuts and bruises meant Kim would kiss her better after another ranger, a rouge putty or Kim had managed to land a hit Trini would gladly accept her fate.

That didn't mean she didn't try though. Managing to trick one of the guys and kicking a putty into a pile of dust was fun, yes, but when Kim's body dripped from sweat while her clothes stuck to her skin as Trini watched how her muscles flexed, she could only take so much of that image before her mind went blank.

Sadly their teachers had decided to them lots of homework during that week and after two days Kim and Trini had recognized in defeat that studying together only lasted for a few minutes before one of them started to distract the other, they had decided to stay away from the other while they still had work to finish.

Tuesday after training they went out on another lunch date and Trini made the mistake of staring at Kim as the girl pulled out the straw out of her milkshake and licked some whipped cream of it. From that sight alone Trini felt a bit too hot all of the sudden, but when Kim then started to gently stroke her leg up and down, Trini had to grab ahold of the table, trying not to fall off her chair. The dents that were already showing in the metal and her white knuckles only brought out a chuckle from Kimberly.

 

Sometime during lunch that week, Billy, Jason and Trini had just grabbed some food and were on their way back to the table where Kim and Zack were already eating, a redheaded boy came their way, not looking where he was going. Only as he almost run into Billy he looked up to them and seemed to notice where he was walking. His face was twisted with anger, looking like he was about to jump them, but then a flicker of recognition glimmered in his eyes. His muscles seemed to relax as he mumbled: “Freaks” under his breath and scurried away.

“What was that about?” Trini asked Jason and Billy as they said down at their table.

Zack and Kim interrupted their talk, turning their attention to Billy as the boy explained. “That was the guy who always used to bully me in detention. But then Jason showed up and punched him. We found the coins that night and Monday morning he tried to break my hand, but it didn't work. And then he knocked himself out as he tried to head-butt me.”

“God. I hate bullies.” Trini poked her plastic fork so hard into a salad-leaf one of the prongs broke off. “Worst kind of people. Totally deserved to be knocked out.”

Prying the piece of plastic out of her food, she almost missed the look Jason and Kim shared. Almost. Figuring it was about their time as King and Queen B of Angel Grove High, she was a bit taken back. She didn't remember them being cruel to anyone. Ever. And from the shadows of the school where she used to live her invisible life, before the Power Ranger thing happened, she didn't recall them being one of the bullies. Sometimes they had stood next to a bully not holding them back, but no actively picking on someone else.

She was about to ask what their look was about, but then Zack started to yell that he was remembering a joke he wanted to tell them. Unfortunately he had been drinking milk when he had started to yell and the white liquid was now running out of his nose, making Trini forget about her question.

 

Friday night, after dinner with her family Trini was finally able to free herself from her mother's controlling grasp and flee up to her room from some peace and quiet.

The peace and quiet didn't last long when a gentle knock on her window made her look up from looking at her phone. The curve of Kim's grin flashed through the glass of her window and she hurried to get up from her bed and open the window for her.

“What are you doing here?” Trini whispered more than she actually spoke.

“Missed you.” Placing a quick peck on Trini cheek, she let herself flop down on her bed, pulling out a grease-stained napkin with something wrapped inside it out of the pocket of her jacket. Wiggling the napkin in front of her face she suggestively tapped on the mattress on the free space next to her.

“Join me. I've brought two of the sweetest things. Me and cookies.”

“Can't wait to eat at least one of those things.”

A choke behind Trini made her realize what she had said and she froze, heat already climbing up to her cheek.

She took her time to she start up her computer, staring at the glimmering screen just to avoid having to turn around and face Kim.

Suddenly she felt warm arms, wrapped around her waist and lips ghost over the sensitive skin on her neck. “What are you doing?”

With her brain becoming useless every time Kim was near she had trouble answering and she had to swallow a few times before words where finally able to speak. “I'm... putting on a movie... so my parents... won't hear us... talking.”

“We don't have to talk.” Kim's lips were now pressing tender kisses in her neck, teeth nibbling on her skin every few seconds, causing shivers to run up and down her spine.

Her fingers were shaking as she started a movie, not trusting Kim or herself to keep quiet for whatever Kim had had in mind when she had decided to come over.

“Now please. I'm starving...” Kim whispered in her ear. “For the cookies.”

Trini could practically hear the smug grin that must have been on Kim's face as she untangled herself from her and soon enough she could hear her bed creaking as she jumped on it.

After taking a few deep breaths Trini was able to face Kim again, who was now lying on her bed, head leaned against her pillow, absently nibbling on a cookie, while scrolling through her phone.

Ordering her legs to move to the sound of the intro of the random movie she had clicked, she walked over to the bed.

Kim was now fanatically typing on her phone, a half-eaten cookie between her teeth. She only gestured for Trini to help herself with one of the baked goods that were lying on the napkin on her bedside table while mumbling something inaudible under her breath.

Slowly chewing on her cookie she watched how Kim rolled her eyes as a response to whatever the person had said she was currently texting.  
Letting out an annoyed sigh she threw her phone to the end of the bed and finished her cookie with furrowed eyebrows.

“Who were you texting?”

Her head spinning around abruptly, Kim looked like she had just remembered that Trini was next to her. Her eyes immediately softened and she turned on her side.

“Just someone from my old life.”

Slowly pushing her body closer, Kim bit her bottom lip, her eyes wandering over Trini's face. She felt her breath hitch as Kim swung her arm over her shoulders and her lips twisted into a coy smile. With her lips hovering over hers, only a few centimeters separating from connecting, Trini felt something in her chest threatening to burst. Full of anticipation she waited for the girl to make a next move.

But the next she felt was the cold air on her skin where Kim's arm had been just a second ago as the girl leaned back to her side of the bed. A triumphant smirk on her lips, she took a bite of the cookie that was now in the hand she had thrown over Trini. Her head was still spinning Trini only realized slowly what Kim's plan had been.

Having no self-control left, her hand shoot out, grabbing onto Kim's chin, while she pushed her body forward. As she felt her lips crash onto Kim's she melted against the feeling of Kim moving against her. Kim let out a sign as her arm fell onto Trini's arm again, holding her close by pushing her wrist against her, the cookie presumably still occupying her hand.  
Crumbles of cookie and sugar tickled against their skin, causing both girls to laugh and separate.

“So sweet.”

Trini wasn't even sure who of them had said that, too lost was she in the deep brown eyes that stayed locked with hers.

 

A while later they said across from each other, cross-legged, their knees touching sharing the last baked good Kim had bought, as Trini had to laugh so hard from something Kim had said, she had to hold her stomach from laughter.

A flash of remembrance ran over Kim's face. “That reminds me. My mother told me to ask you if you wanted to come over for dinner on Sunday.”  
Trini must have let out an audible gulp, because Kim's hands were on her knees the next second, her thumbs drawing small circles.

“Only if you want to and feel up to it though.”

A weight was pressing on her ribcage, threatening to suffocate her but one look in the warm supporting eyes of the girl in front of her started to melt her fears.

“Okay. Yes. Why not.”

“You sure?”

She placed her own hands on top of Kim's which were still lying on her knees.

“Not at all.” The confession slipped out with a deep exhale. Quickly she tried to assure herself and Kim. “But for you. For us.. I have to stop being afraid.”

The smile that reappeared on Kim's lips didn't look very convinced but it seemed to calm her down for a moment. “My mom also wanted to ask if you are allergic to anything or if there is anything you don't like to eat.”

“Not allergic to anything. And as far as food I don't eat... olives. Olives can go suck themselves.”

“Olives, really? But olives are delicious.”

She let out a faked, shocked gasp and she pulled her fingers out of Kim's grip to press them against her cheeks as she shook her head in disbelief.

A smile flashed over her face for a second, but as Trini's hands found hers again, Kim's face darkened. “Trini? Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.” She gave her hands a light squeeze.

“What did you mean when you said you have to stop being afraid? What do you have to stop being afraid off?”

Trini took a moment to think before answering. “I am used to being the new girl with no friends, who gets stared at and picked on whenever I allowed myself to stop hiding for a second. But here, in Angel Grove, I am no longer the new girl. I have the boys and I have you. I no longer care if I am being looked at weird or if someone makes fun of me. Bullies like my mother or Amanda no longer scare me. I know now that the sort of people that used to pick on me don’t deserve my fear or anger. I've learned a lot from getting to know Jason or you better.” Before continuing she had to take a breath and ran her hand through her hair. “You don't even know how scared I was that you were one of those people, you know. Someone who uses the weakness of someone else against them. You proved me wrong, though. You taught me that there is more behind the first impression. But I still... I still freeze up in situations, when I know that there won't be a chance for me to hide and run away like I used to do. So I guess what I meant was that I have to stop being afraid of what will happen... when I finally stop hiding and live my life.”

Having looked everywhere in her room except for at the girl in front of her, Trini searched for her eyes as she finished her speech, only to find them filling up with tears. She was sure that the crack that ripped through her heart at the sight of Kim tearing up was so loud it could be heard in the next town over.

“Wha-?” She felt herself being pulled closer, the taller girl melting in her arms as she wrapped them around her.

Combing through Kim's short her with her fingers she tried to calm the girl as best as she could, still stunned by the Kim's reaction.

Much to both of their surprise Kim's eyes stayed dry and she only snuffled a few times after she leaned back enough to look at Trini while cradling her face in both hands.

“I.. You're..” Seemingly she had trouble finding the right words. Instead of continuing to stutter, she just kissed Trini. She could feel the desperation that Kim tried to place in her kiss, by the way her lip quivered against hers and the sigh she let out, as Trini's teeth collided with hers caused by the force and sloppiness of their kisses.

She felt Kim shift in her seat and soon enough a hand was pushing against her shoulder, gently guiding her back, making her lean against the headboard of her bed.  
While pushing Trini, Kim moved as well. Her hands pushing against her legs, urging Trini to sit no longer cross-legged, but have them stretched out. As soon as she straightened them, she felt how Kim started to straddle her, her knees now placed on mattress on both sides of her lap. One hand was still on her shoulder, her nails now digging into her skin, as Kim second hand moved from her cheek into her hair.

Being slightly overwhelmed of the feeling of Kim on top of her and all the small touches and noises she let out, Trini wasn't entirely sure where to put her hands. At first they had found their way to Kim's hips, but with a sudden movement of the girl they had slipped and her thumbs where now lying on the hem of her shirt.

Her head was spinning as she slowly started to move them further up underneath the shirt waiting for a sign from Kim making her to stop. But instead Kim's teeth nibbled on her bottom lip and when her hands were completely under her shirt, the slight tuck she felt on her lip, she took as sign of approval. The warmth of her skin against her fingers made her feel woozy, carefully she started to trace Kim's muscles on her back and stomach as the girl moved on top of her. Her kisses still causing the blood to rush in her ears.

Just as she was about to move her hands even further up a voice outside of her door startled the two girls. “Good night Trini.” It sounded like her father was standing directly in front of her room, causing both girls to freeze and Trini tried to control her heavy going breath as much as possible before answering.

“Night dad.”

The sound of footsteps walking away crept into the room and as a door was thrown shut at the end of the hallway, both girls let out the breath they had been holding. While Kim let herself fall down on the mattress next to Trini she pulled her hands out from underneath her shirt.

“I'm sorry. I totally forgot about your family.” Kim ran her hand through her hair and visibly swallowed before continuing. “I'm sorry for... I..” She seemed to be at loss for words again and her eyes looked like they were about to tear up.

Kim buried her face in the pillow she was lying on, her arms clenching around it.

Moving closer to the trembling woman, Trini laid one hand on her back.

Suddenly the girl lifted up her head again, a slightly puzzled expression on her face. With furrowed eyebrows she pushed one arm further underneath the pillow only to pull it out completely a second later. Her fingers were wrapped around a gray plastic dinosaur. Trini barely remembered putting it there the last time she had put clean sheets on her bed.

“What is this?”

Quickly she snatched it out of her hands to hold it tight against her chest. “A dinosaur.”

“Can I see it?” Her fingers were warm against Trini's hand as she waited for her to release the dinosaur from her grip and place it in her hand.

Kim rolled on her back while turning the dinosaur in front of her face, twisting it between her fingers. “That's a pterodactyl.”

“I know.”

One eyebrow raised she asked: “Why do you have this?”

“My brothers gave it to me.” Trini admitted.

“But why is it in your bed?”

That question made Trini mirror Kim's position from a few moments ago as she buried her face in her pillow out embarrassment

“Trini?”

She mumbled something in her pillow that even she couldn't comprehend, wishing Kim would hear something that made sense and leave it be. But sadly the girl just giggled and continued asking. “What?”

Sighing in defeat she turned her head, facing Kim. “I used to look at it when I was younger. Whenever I felt alone I took it out and thought about my impression.” Trini remembered the lonely nights too well, when she had fought with her parents or life had tried to pull her down in some other way. She remembered how soothing the cold plastic animal had felt in her hand and how it had anchored her to the thought that there was someone out there, someone who would understand her, someone who cared. “It reminded me about what my impression had shown me. That there was someone out there.”

Kim let the dinosaur fly a few circles above their heads before stuffing it back into the crack of her bed. Wiggling herself closer she whispered in Trini's ear. “I'm right here.”

Trini didn't even try to hide the smile that appeared on her face as she heard her words. With a deep but quick kiss she tried to make her understand what her word meant to her.

 

Not long after Kim left to return to her own home. Both girls didn't want to risk Trini's family finding Kim in her bed if she stayed over and they decided to burst into the room for some reason.

With it being the weekend, they knew they were going to each other soon enough again.

Trini spend most of her Saturday making her homework and helping her mother with chores. The woman liked to watch her like a hawk eyes its prey, making sure she didn't stay too long on her phone, in case she was texting the wrong person or playing the wrong kinds of games.

She had hoped to slip away when the day started to bleed into the afternoon, but then her mother announced she had to babysit her brother tonight, because her parents had been invited to an important social gathering that would offer her dad the opportunity of promotion.

As soon as her parents had left she texted Kim that their evening plans were canceled and that she had to play dress up with her brothers until she could put them to bed.

After about an hour of pretend-fights as Power Rangers and turning the living room into battle ground a knock on the front door startled the three of them as they were about to defend Angel Grove from green ladies and gold giants again.

Pulling of the paper-helmet they had made, Trini tried to untangle her hair a bit as she opened the door.

Much to her surprise Kim was standing on the front stairs waving awkwardly with one hand.

“Hey.”

“Kim? What are you doing here?” Trini found a nerf-dart tangled in her hair and pulled it out with a scrunched nose.

“Helping you babysit.” She smiled while tilting her head. “If you want.

“Sure.” Taking a step back, she allowed Kim to enter the house as she shut the door behind her.

For one moment they stood across from each other, not entirely sure what to do, as Trini took the initiative and looked down the hallway to make sure no brother was in sight. With the coast being clear, Trini pulled Kim down for a short, sweet kiss and guided the still slightly startled girl in the living room after they separated. “Come. We are playing Power Rangers.”

Two small heads turned to them as they entered the room. “Hey guys, do you remember my friend Kim?”

Both of her brothers nodded and she was relieved as they started to smile and one of them mouthed to the other something that looked very much like: “the pretty one.”

Choosing to ignore that, she kept talking. “She wanted to join our little game of Power Rangers if that's okay with you. I am pretty sure she can help beat the mean gold monster.”

Her brothers started to beam with joy as she finished and they were jumping up and down as they fiddled on the paper-helmets they were still wearing. They had made them a few days ago out of tape and paper they had colored with pencils. For each Ranger one helmet. Currently they were being the red and black ranger, but which ranger they thought was the coolest changed on a day to day basis.

Trini grabbed her own yellow helmet from where she had placed it before she went to open the door and pulled it over her head as her youngest brother asked Kim if she wanted to be the blue ranger or the pink one.

Trini answered for her. “Pink fits best I think.” Her voice didn't even shake as she thought about what her mother would think about her friend wearing pink in her house.

With her youngest brother ran upstairs to grab the pink helmet Trini couldn't help but to glance softly at Kim as she listened to her to her brother explaining their game. About that the rangers only fought against each other for practice and how the gold monster was currently destroying the kitchen, but before they could reach it they had to fight their way through the stone putties that were all over the living room.

Her heart swelled at the sight of Kim's excited face and how she promptly pulled over the pink paper-helmet and followed her brother behind the couch to talk battle strategy.

 

After they had defended Angel Grove and the world from destruction with Kim's help, the two girls started to prepare dinner for the boys, while they cleaned up the traces their game had left in the living room.

Trini had to bribe her brothers not to tell their mother about Kim being here. She mumbled something about her being their secret weapon and if their mother knew she would try to take that away from them. It took only that and a warm cocoa for the two of them to sweat secrecy about Kim's presence. Trini had little faith in them actually keeping quiet, but watching Kim interact with them warmed her heart so much she cared little about the storm her mother would bring on her if she found out.

They played a board game about racing cars after they had finished eating, before she announced it was bed time.

With Kim present her brothers changed into their PJ's quickly and the brushing their teeth took place with a relatively small flood on the bathroom floor.

As they finally entered the room her brothers shared, they excitingly asked if Kim could read their goodnight-story for them. Unfortunately they only had Spanish children books and Kim had to admit that she never had taken a year of Spanish in high school. The disappointment on her brothers’ faces lasted only until Trini promised to find an English children’s book for the next time Kim would be over to put them to bed.

That was how Trini found herself sitting on her brother's bed, him sitting in her lap and the book in her hands in front of them, while Kim sat with her body flushed against her, her other brother on her lap so he could look into the book. Her tongue tripped over words more often than usually but her brother's didn't seem to mind.

When she was done and let the book snap shut in her hands, her brother crawled off her lap into his bed, while Kim carried the other one to his bed and tucked him in.

Giving both of them a kiss on their forehead she bid them goodnight and left the room announcing that she would let the door open with the light turned on in the hallway and they would be in her room if anything was wrong.

Her brothers mumbled a quiet “Night Trin. Night Kim.” when they left and stepped into Trini's room.

Once again Kim had to sneak away through her window as they heard her parents’ car pull up in the driveway, after a few hours of little talks and sweet innocent kisses.

 

 

Trini's Sunday morning started with fight training that Jason had ordered for the first half of the day. Her mood about getting up early to get her ass kick was only dampened until she saw Kim kick a putty into a pile of dirt, dressed in shorts and a pink sports bra that clung so tight to her sweat drenched skin leaving no space of imagination.

After training, she followed Kim down the mountain in a quick and very unfair race, which Kim easily would have won if she hadn't stopped at a cliff causing Trini to stop as well.

Before she could ask her if something was wrong, Kim mumbled something like “I wonder if it works again.” as she grabbed onto Trini's shoulders, yelling that she was sorry and pulled her down the cliff.

Trini hit the water, still shaking her head at herself from falling for that again.

Unfortunately they both were expected at home and they didn't have a lot of time for swimming, romping and kissing in the pool of water in the middle of the forest and soon enough they had to leave again.

Kim had to go home because her mother had insisted that she would help clean the dining room and prepare the food for when Trini came over in the evening. And Trini had to get home to convince her mother to allow her to skip dinner in order for a study session at Kim's house with the boys. She knew that lying to her mother was not the best idea, but they had decided on easing more and more truth into her lies, to make her get used to Trini handing around with Kim.

 

A few hours later Trini stood in front of Kim's front door, shifting from on foot to the other, a bouquet of flowers in each hand, trying to talk herself into ringing the bell. She had been freaking out all day. Even her mother had noticed that something was up when she had come back home after training. Maybe it had been Trini changing her outfit for about two hours or how she had bobbed her leg up and down whenever she sat down somewhere or something else, Trini wasn't sure.

After being too nervous for about ten minutes and her arm refusing to move from her side, the door was opened for her without her actually having knocked.

Kim's father stood in the door way and looked slightly amused. “I've been watching you get more and more nervous for about five minutes. I thought it was time to put you out of your misery.” His smile was warm and inviting and it helped a bit with her anxiety.

“Why don't you come in?” He stepped back and together they walked through the small hallway into the kitchen.

Kim's mother was currently seemingly finishing up a salad, while Kim crouched on the floor in front of the oven, kitchen mitts on both of her hands.

A quiet “Hello.” was all Trini managed to say as she held out the flowers awkwardly in their general direction.

“Look, Kim. Your girlfriend brought us flowers.” Kim's mother pulled Trini, who was still holding the bouquets into a bone-crushing hug. The word girlfriend made her feel even hotter. Kim and she hadn't really talked about labels yet. Not really.

“Welcome, my dear. It is very good to see you. Thank you for the beautiful flowers. Let me put those into water, yes?”

Kim's father took over for tossing the salad, while her mother took the flowers from Trini and hurried out of the room.

Kim greeted her with a quick peck on her cheek. Her consideration for Trini's fear of using too much affection in front of her parents caused her chest swell fuzzy feelings for the girl and she wanted nothing more than just bury herself in her arms.

Her presence dimed her nervousness a bit and Trini found herself being able to breathe again.

 

A few minutes later the four of them sat on the dinner table, the flowers Trini had brought them in two vases on the table, between the baking dish with lasagna and the salad-bowl.

Trini's biggest fear had been to make a fool out of herself when she had to answer the obligatory questions from Kim's parents, but somehow the conversation felt light and easy as they all ate. The questions about where she was from, about her family and how she did in school were all quickly answered and Kim's mother managed to make her loose the last bit of nervousness when she started to tell her a story about a two-year-old Kim at the beach. Walking on sand had turned out to be a bit difficult for her and only dressed in a diaper Kim kept on falling face first into the sand. While she and Kim's father had to hold their bellies from laughing too hard, Kim sat across from her with deep red cheeks. Somehow she managed to convince her mother to show Trini the photo albums of her as a kid not this time but next dinner and Trini started to feel the friendliness Kim and her family offered her.

By the end of dinner she was on a first-name basis with both of them and hugged them goodbye before Kim brought her to the door.

Before sending her off into the night Kim asked her about three times if she had enjoyed herself and was doing okay. She only seemed to convince her as she kissed to stop her from asking the fourth time.

The happy and content feeling stayed with her as she walked through the dark streets and even as she was lying in her bed that night she still felt like she was floating on air.

 

 

The next Tuesday after lunch Trini stood by Kim's locker watching the girl choose the books and papers she needed for her next period. The hallways were already starting to empty as the students poured into their classrooms.

The loud bang from Kim shutting her locker ripped her away from mushy thoughts about the girl who was now looking at her amused as she blinked away her shock.

“See something you like?” Her voice was raw and low as she bit her lip and allowed her eyes to wander up and down Trini's front, not even hiding she was checking her out.

A switch flipped inside Trini and she couldn't stop herself from grabbing onto Kim's wrist and pulled her behind her into a bathroom.

Letting go of her hand for a second, she kicked against the stall doors, checking if the bathroom was as deserted as she hoped it to be.

Satisfied by finding the entire room empty, she threw her backpack onto the floor while walking fast towards Kim, the girl stepped back out of shock until her back hit the wall. Trapping her between the wall and her body, Trini grabbed ahold of her neck pulling her in for a heated kiss while her hand wandered underneath Kim's top, nails scraping slightly the skin on her back. Feeling the girl frozen underneath her touch she feared she had went too far with attacking her like this, but then Kim let out a breath and her hands turned into fists in her hair, pulling ever so slightly, trying to deepen the kiss.

“Tease.” The word was barely a breath as it left Trini's mouth and Trini felt how one hand was pulled out of her hair only to find its way underneath her jacket. She separated the two of them, their lips hovering over the other ones.

“I'm the tease?!”, she asked. The shock and surprise in her voice clearly played. And Trini couldn't stop but think about how Kim never stopped teasing her, with her little smirks, looks, touches while saying things only to get a reaction out of Trini.

Kim went in for a kiss again, but Trini danced away. Two could play this game. Not allowing Kim to kiss her again, she moved her fingers further and further up her belly, her eyes never leaving Kim's.

Just when Kim tightened the grip of the hand in her hair, Trini allowed her fingers to grace against the fabric of Kim's sports-bra following the curve of her breast. Feeling the girl shiver and suck in her breath underneath her touch filled Trini with satisfaction.

The bell ringing above their heads, announcing the official start for the next class, seemed to startle Kim who looked just a little bit dazed. Trini used the moment to catch her off-guard for the second time, by removing from Kim's bra to guided her head back towards her and connect their lips in a tongue and teeth heavy kiss that left the two of them breathless when they separated a few moments later.

Trini didn't exactly know how she did it, but somehow she detached from Kim and attempted to tame her hair a bit. With one last look at the puffy-lipped girl she picked up her backpack from the floor and walked out of the room, leaving behind a very confused Kim with still heavy going breath.

With those memories she didn't mind the trouble she got into with her teacher for being late at all.

 

Unfortunately their make-out sessions during the week were cut short by people almost catching them every time, causing both girls to be severely touch-deprived as the days continued.

Which was how Trini found herself by Friday night in her kitchen, trying to keep her attention to whatever she was currently cutting with a knife while Kim sat on the counter-top next to her, purring the sweetest things into her ear.

Only the fact that she avoided looking at her kept her sane enough to not cut herself, but then Kim's fingers were running up and down her arm and she made the mistake of facing her.

Slender fingers were immediately cupping her chin and all she was able to do was follow them as they guided her in between her legs. Her last thought was to leave the knife on the cutting board, before soft lips were pressed against hers, short-circuiting her brain.

Her own name long forgotten as Kim's hands urged Trini to take off the plaid shirt she was wearing over her tank-top. Her own hands were wandering up Kim' thighs disappearing underneath her shirt to return to their favorite place. Her fingers were ghosting against Kim's stomach muscles as Kim's tongue dipped into her mouth.

Feeling brave she repeated her move from their school-bathroom-make-out session and let her fingers brushed against Kim's breast. The reaction was immediate. Goosebumps were forming all over Kim's skin and she sighed into the kiss.  
Kim removed her lips from hers only long enough to let out a moaned. “Couch.” before continuing to kiss Trini like there was no tomorrow.

Happily Trini obliged. Her hand grabbed onto Kim's ass as the girl linked her legs around her waist, allowing her to pick her off of the counter.

Stumbling out of the kitchen and into the kitchen, they soon enough made their way to the couch. One foot still on the ground, one kneeling on the couch, Trini gently let Kim sink down. This allowed Trini to lock down on her and take the vision of this goddess of a girl. Her hair was spread around her head in a mess as she looked up to Trini, her eyes widened and darker than usual.

Her finger hooked in the necklace she was wearing, and she gladly returned into Kim's arms who welcomed her by pushing up her top enough for her hands to run over the soft skin on her back. Her legs were now pressed against the inside of Kim's who had wrapped both of them around her again.

Holding herself with up with one arm she had placed next to Kim's head, her free hand explored the feeling of running up and down Kim's outer thigh.

At one point, Kim tucked at the hem of her tank-top, asking her silently for permission to take it off, which was how both of their tops found their way to the floor.

With better access to Trini's back Kim seemed to find joy in scrapping over her skin, her nails causing deep red streaks to appear on her skin. Not that Trini minded. On the contrary. She loved the feeling of Kim's nails dig into her skin, as she started to grind down with slow strong movements.

The missing top allowed her to better trace the sides of Kim's bra, but after a while only teasing was seemingly not enough for Kim anymore. “Trini. Touch me.”, she mumbled between kisses and Trini didn't waste another minute.

Her hand cupped around her breast, her nibble hardened against the fabric of her bra as her thumb stroked over it.

She was about to kiss her way down Kim's jaw line as the sound of keys turning in the lock of the front door made the two girls jump apart. Hectically they retrieved their shirts, trying to tame the bird nests they called hair and get as much space as possible between them with Kim remaining on the couch, and Trini fleeing to the armchair across the room.

Not a second later her brother came running into the room, both shouting about wanting to be the first one to tell Trini about the play they just had seen. Trini had had the house for herself with her parents and her brothers being at the school-play of their elementary school, but apparently they were already back and there was no chance of Kim leaving now without being seen.

Her brothers were only startled for one second before recognizing Kim and throwing themselves against her. “Kim.”

Without asking for permission her youngest brother climbed into Kim's lap, showing his tongue to his brother who ran slightly less enthusiastic to Trini and hopped into her lap.

Her brother was currently squishing Kim's face between his hands while giving an elaborate retell of the play they had seen, and how they were back early because one kid fell of the stage and bled everywhere, with occasional hecklings from her other brother about just how much blood is was, as her parents walked into the room.

Her father only greeted both girls with a huge smile explaining how the kid had had only a small cut on his forehead, but the first graders, all dressed as various insects had panicked, and had dispensed in all direction while whaling loud with their parents running after them trying to catch them. The play wasn't resumed after all shocked kids had been found and calmed down again. Her mother stood next them him, her hands clenching around the jacket she was still holding, a sour expression on her face as she looked between Kim and Trini.

“Kim. I think it is very late enough and your presence seems to only excite the boys even more. Maybe you should go.” June's voice was icy and Trini could already feel the anger boil inside her after her mother speaking to Kim like that. She would have started a fight if her brother hadn't been in her lap, humming gently while playing with her hand.

Kim only nodded as she got up, placing her brother on the couch next to her.  
“Night, Trini. See you around.” Her posture was graceful and tall as she gave Trini a fake smile that lacked of warmth and kindness, as if she knew that her normal smile was able to turn Trini into a stuttering mess.

Jumping off from her lap, both of her brothers threw themselves around Kim's legs and she ruffled through their hair, telling them to have sweet dreams, before she bid her parents farewell and disappeared down the hallway.

With the noise of the door falling shut behind her, her brothers ran back to Trini.

“Trin?”

“Yes?”

“Why is your shirt backwards?” Her brother tucked slightly on the tag of her tank-top which was inside out and in the front.

Mentally face-palming herself she looked up to her parents, but her father only looked more amused than before while her mother looked like was about to burst.

She hurried to get out of her sight and hid in her room to listen to them fighting about her again. Her father keep arguing that she was finally acting like normal hormonal teenager to which her mother only reacted with: “But they are both girls?!”. Trini could picture her dad as he shrugged and commented: “So what?”.

 

Her mother was a nightmare the next day, shadowing her every movement, while her father tried to talk her into toning it down, but it didn't work. The gray, rainy day in front of her window didn't help her mood at all and by midday she was so desperate that she texted Kim to please come and pick her up so she could get out of this hellhole.

To her relieve Kim texted back the next moment that she was on her way and Kim spend the next fifteen minutes staring out of her window waiting for her to show up.  
As she saw her pull up into her street, she hurried down the stairs while slipping into her jacket. She only called for her parents that she was going out for a while, to which her father responded with: “Have fun.” and her mother with “Where are you going? Who are you meeting? Wha-”. Trini was sure the flood of questions was still going, even as she pulled the door shut behind her and ran out into the street.

Behind her she could hear how the door was opened again and when Kim finally stopped the car next to her she just got in and begged for her to just “Drive!”.

“What happened?” Kim asked slowly as they left her street.

“My mother was being unbearable.”

“You know.. You fleeing from her by just getting into my car is probably not helping with them being okay with us...” Kim added quietly, and Trini knew she was right. If they wanted to make this work they had to think of the long game and impulsive escapes weren't the smartest idea.

“I know..” She ran her hand over her face. “But it seems that my father doesn't have anything against us. After you were gone yesterday he was not mad at all and he tried to calm the fuming dragon that was my mother down.”

“That's good.” Kim motioned for her to give her her hand as she continued to drive through the city and when Trini linked her fingers with her Kim pressed a gently peck against the top of her hand.

“Where are we driving?”

“Wait.”

“How long will I have to wait? Cause right now I really want you to pull over so I can kiss you.”

A faint hint of pink was shimmering on Kim's cheeks and she chuckled. “A few minutes. I'm driving to a hiking parking lot. Because I really want you all to myself with no interruptions. And back at my house, my mother would only steal you to tell you more stupid baby-stories of me.”

“That doesn't sound too terrible.”

Kim huffed and rolled her eyes.

“I'm sure you were an adorable baby. “

“Actually no. I was very chubby and somehow always dirty.”

“I am gonna need to see pictures of that.” Trini laughed as Kim pulled onto a deserted parking lot surrounded by trees, with hiking trails leading away from it in every possible direction.

“Fine.” Kim turned off the engine, one eyebrow raised she grinned at Trini. “I brought my laptop. We can make out in the back-seat while pretending to watch a movie?”

“Sounds like a great plan.”

Quickly both girls crawled into the back of the car, only for Kim to realize that she had left the laptop in the legroom of the passenger seat. Leaning over the arm-rests of the two front seats she tried to retrieve the laptop-bag while Trini admired the view.

 

Placing impatient kisses along Kim's neck she waited for the girl to start a random movie.

When finally the intro song was pouring out of the speakers of the computer, Kim had mercy with her and connected their lips for the first time that day. Kissing her always managed to render her defenseless. With Kim's lips on hers her brain forgot even the simplest things, like to keep breathing and the stars that exploded behind her eyes at every touch were as addicting as the taste of her kisses that were so unmistakable Kim.

Soon enough Kim was startling her lap, the limited space the back of the car forced her to hold her tilted. Her hands were once again clenched into fists into her hair, her top long lost as she grinded down onto Trini's legs.

The visual of Kim's lips remaining parted with every of her rocking movements, encouraged Trini to be bolder than usual. While nibbling on Kim's jawline her hand were cupping her breasts, toying with her nipples through the fabric of the lacy bra Kim was wearing that day.

The sound of Kim's mobile phone ringing in the background was soon ignored again, as Trini started to kiss down Kim's neck, nibbling on her skin only to smooth over the sensitive spot with her tongue the next moment.

Her fingers were steadily pushing the bra strap further down Kim's shoulder as her kisses explored her collarbone.

The phone started to ring for a second time, causing Kim to only speed up the movements in Trini's lap and Trini to kiss her way over to the remove the other bra-strap.

Just as her fingers had found the clasp of Kim's bra in her back, her phone rang for the third time and annoyingly Kim decided to pick up this time.

While listening to whoever spoke to her on the phone, Kim had stopped all movements, but Trini didn't feel like playing it safe. With a cocky grin she started to plaster Kim's neck with kisses again. When she let her tongue dance over a seemingly especially sensitive spot, Kim's hips jerked without warning, causing Trini to having to swallow her giggles and Kim to breathe in sharply.

“Yes, mom.” If Kim had hoped making her release who she was talking to would get Trini to stop, she had thought wrong. Instead Trini just continued teasing her skin and watched with satisfaction how Kim had to bite down on her lip and how her hand clenched into the backrest of the seat.

Scratching down Kim's back with her fingernails, cause her body to rock against her again, as her mouth wanders even further down until it reached she warm skin of her breast and kisses along the line were fabric and flesh meet.

Being distracted for a moment by a moan Kim barely managed to swallow Trini didn't control the strength with which she was sucking on her skin. Only as Kim's voice cracked while talking she noticed and quickly detached herself. A deep red spot was already promising the hickey that would form over the next minutes, causing Trini to giggle and Kim to smack her in the head.

“Want me to stop?”, Trini only mouthed up to Kim resulting only in her shaking her head with a sheepish smile.

Happily she returned to placing sweet kisses on Kim's breast, while her thumb stroked over her nipple.

Two hands running into her hair told her that Kim had ended her phone call and she looked up.

“You are really mean, you know that right?” Kim met her lips with a tender kiss. “My mom says Hi by the way.”

“What did she want?”

“She wants me to come home.”

This caused Trini to pout, not wanting to release Kim from her arms so soon again.

“Stop pouting and let us use those last few minutes.” Her voice tickled in her ear and immediately Kim picked up her rocking movements again.

Trini switched her hands and placed the one that had been caressing Kim's breast on her ass to give it a light squeeze while the other one started to play with the nipple that had been neglected while Trini had been scratching down her back.

A noise made her look up and she saw how Kim was now supporting herself by pressing one hand against the car roof that would definitely have a dent later.

Too soon they separated and Kim pulled over her shirt again, making Trini miss the heat that her skin emitted immediately.

As expected her mother threw a tantrum as she got home, but her father only told her to hide while he would deal with her and after few minutes of yelling their screams died down and allowed Trini to daydream back to Kim and her in the car.

 

 

Monday morning Kim was waiting for her at her locker again and her heart skipped a beat just like it did all the other times Trini caught a glimpse of the other girl.

Amazed by her beauty and how she was holding herself with such delicacy and grace, it took her breath away every time she saw a strand of her hair fall it her face or the way her lips curled upwards into a smile.

Being distracted by Kim while trying to find in her locker what she needed for class was becoming a regular thing, yet when Kim left to go to her class Trini missed the girl more with every step she took away from her.

 

Stuffing the history book in her backpack the next thing she knew were two shadows falling over her hands. Out of the corner of her eyes she recognized them as Amanda and Harper hovering over her like hawk eyes its prey.

“Hey you.” One of them tapped on her shoulder but Trini choose to ignore them.

“Yo, new girl.” The other one. Her voice even more annoying than the first one.

“Hey.” With that Harper pushed her locker-door shut. It wasn't fast and even without super speed she would have been able to save her fingers easily from the cold metal door.

This did make her turn around, trying to put on her most irritated expression she faced the two girls. “What?!”

“You and Kim? You're a thing now right?” Harper's voice had something teasing in it and she looked like she wanted to keep annoying her but Amanda stepped in.

“Look. We don't want to hurt you or anything. We just want to give you a little warning.”

As much as their presence bugged her, she was starting to get curious why they would decide to talk to her, someone that usually wasn't worth a second look.

“A warning?” She didn't like the look they shared at her questions at all.

“About Kim.” Harper started to twirl her hair around one finger, while giving Trini a look like that was the most obvious thing in the world. “She's not... She's not all smiles and pink. There is more to her. She's not a-”

Amanda interrupted her by placing a hand on her arm. “Don't give Kimberly the chance to backstab you like she did with me. Don't trust her.”

The next moment a furious Kim was by her side. Her eyes were emitting sparks of anger in the direction of her old friends. “Shut up. Don't talk to her.”

“Or what?” Trini could see how Harper's jaw muscles clenched as she crossed her arms in front of her body and took a step towards Kim. “Afraid we will tell her truth about who or rather about what you really are?” She then turned her attention to Trini.

“Has she told you why she hit Ty and what happened before that?”

Her stunned face must have given away that Trini had indeed no idea what had driven Kim to hit Ty. They hadn't talked must about their pasts besides the things that had anything to do with their impressions. Amanda snorted as she watched Trini and her usual arrogant expression reappeared on her face. “Of course not. Thought so.”

Kim was fuming next to her. She could almost feel the heat that was emitting from her skin caused by the anger boiling inside her. “Shut the fuck up, Amanda.”

The girl mirrored Harper by crossing her arms. “Fine.” She ripped her eyes from glaring at Kim back to Trini for a moment. “But don't say we didn't warn you, when she finally shows her true face.”

With that the two girls turned around and walked away, leaving behind a slightly frightened and confused Trini and a irritated Kim who still held her arms next to her body, her hands clenched to fists so hard her knuckles were white and Trini was sure her nails were drawing blood.

Her voice shook more that she liked as she finally spoke up. “What were they talking about? What happened back then?”

Trini could hear how Kim grinded her teeth, her face still twisted with anger. “Not now okay? I have to go to class.” With that something washed over her entire body. Her body lost some of the tenseness while her face went cold and expressionless. It reminded Trini a lot of the mask Kim used wear in the past. Before she had lost her Queen B throne and they had become Power Rangers, before Trini had gotten to know her. “I gotta go.” With that she turned away, not even looking at Trini before starting to disappear down the hallway. Something in her eyes made Trini not follow her. A knot seemed to started formed in her chest, causing a short jolt of pain to rip through her with every breath.

 

During lunch she was more quiet than usual, avoiding everyone’s eyes and dogging their questions. She had also taken the seat as farthest away from her and wasn't sitting flushed against her like usual. And in bio Kim didn't turn around even once. She didn't really do anything, not even take notes. Her head remained facing away from her and after class she was out of her seat and out of the room in the same breath the teacher ended the period.

 

After school, Trini barely managed to catch her in the parking lot by her car.  
“Kim!” Her eyes flickered to Trini as she ran towards her, but her steps towards her car didn't stop.

As she finally reached her, she brought herself between Kim and her car. “Why won't you just tell me what's wrong?”

Her eyes snapped up from the ground and met hers. “I doubt that you would understand.”

Taken back from the iciness of her voice and the anger that was still sparking in her eyes, Trini inhaled sharp.

“Just... leave me alone okay? I need to think and I can't do that if you keep looking at me like that with those innocent doe eyes of yours. I am not who you want me to be, okay?” Something in Kim had seemed to burst, causing to bring an end to her day of silence and making her yell out everything she had held inside. “Do me a favor and just leave.”

“No.” Her voice was so quiet she wasn't sure Kim had heard her. She looked in her eyes for some sign, but she had trouble even recognizing them. They were so different. They had lost their warmth and seemed to only hold anger and guilt.

“I can't... I can't be with someone like you.”

Her words hit Trini like a ton of bricks, forcing the air out of her lungs and pulling the ground out from underneath her feet.

She almost expected Kim to continue, to give her the last push, to make her world crumble. But instead she just stepped around her, got in her car and drove away.

With the sound of the car engine getting quieter as she got out of ear-shot, the knot in Trini's chest grew. It was now emitting a constant pain that made her feel like she wasn't able to breathe anymore. She could feel how tears were already stinging in her eyes. The crowdedness of the parking lot and the constant buzzing of the people talking around her were starting to get too much, too loud. She shouldered her backpack and started to run away from the school and into the mountains. Away from everyone and everything. Yet one voice kept echoing over the sound of cars moving around her while she was running down the streets of Angel Grove and over the sound of the leaves of the tree rusting as she reached the forest. One voice and the sound of her footsteps on the gravel accompanied her on her way up the in the mines. _I can't be with someone like you._

Questions started to run through her head, questions about Kim and what she had meant, questions about her and her behavior. Had she been too clingy, had everything been too much, too fast.

A storm started to rage in her stomach and joined the sting in her chest by making her feel weak, like her knees were about to give out underneath her the next moment.  
Her feet carried her further into the mines, her mind too clouded with thoughts spinning too fast to hold onto one long enough to understand it.

She didn't stop before she torpedoed herself over a cliff and fell down into a pool of water. Inhaling once she dove down, broke through the surface on the other side. She stumbled slightly as she landed on the dirty cave floor but she quickly steady herself and ran into the spaceship.

The need to punch something, someone, was getting stronger and she might have yelled at Alpha 5 a bit too harsh that he should create putties for her to hit or she would use him as punching-bag.

She lost track of time as she kicked and punched putty after putty into a small pile of dust and she was sure she would have continue to fight until her body gave out. But unfortunately Alpha 5 insisted she had to stop because her knuckles were raw and bloody and her lungs ached. Her body was sore but the storm of feelings inside her was still raging and threatened to swept her away. It seemed that only the pain from her skin hitting the rock-putties seemed to anchor to the world, but Alpha now refused to create more putties for her causing her to surrender herself to the world tumbling down around her.

 

 

The next day, Kim ambushed her at her locker. She looked less angry than the day before, but Trini was now the one fuming.

“Trini.” Her voice trembled as she spoke and her posture was smaller than usual. “Trini. I want to-”

“What?” She didn't really feel like talking if Kim had planned to continue to make her feel like shit. “You want to yell at me again?”

“What?” Looking slightly startled Kim's face fell. “No. I just.. Can you just let me.. I want to explain.”

It would have been easy to just give in and listen to what Kim had to say, but Trini's pride was still hurting. Kim had managed to pull the rug out from underneath her with a few words and Trini was too proud to admit to herself that she had allowed someone to get so close to be able to do that. “Will you tell me the truth? About what happened with Ty and Amanda? And will you tell me what exactly you meant with that you can't be with someone like me?”

The anger inside her was only fueled as Kim looked to taken back to answer. So the next moment Trini turned on her heel, having decided that she had given her enough time to find excuses. With every step that carried her farther away from Kim the knot in her chest seemed to pulsate, to let her know it was still there and was threating to suffocate her.

She went into invisible mood for the rest of the day, blended into the crowd of students and thanks to having no classes with the rest of her friends she managed to avoid them and skipped lunch by hiding in the back of library like she used to do from time to time before she had become a ranger.

 

That night Trini didn't sleep well. She was used to see Rita's cold eyes on occasion or smell the stench of the dead fish drift through her dreams, but that night her sleep was plagued with nightmares.

She jolted up in her bed as she woke up from a terrible dream in which Rita had managed to take the crystal and had made Trini watch how her family and friends died. A throbbing pain in her elbow and a hole in her wall revealed to her that she had punched her wall as she had woken up. Her room felt too stuffy and the wall looked like they were about to fall on top of her.

The next second she was out of her window and found her way back into the mountains again. Her usual escape-place always allowed her lungs to breathe just a little lighter even with a weight on her chest. Her hands still felt raw from punching too much so she decided against going to the spaceship and instead jogged down to the train-tracks. Either hoping to find Zack there or his secret hiding place of alcohol.

 

Discovering that her friend was nowhere to be found, she easily found the vodka bottle Zack had stuffed into the lining of a broken seat inside an abandoned train.

She crawled on top of the abandoned wagon and lifted the bottle to her lips. The cold liquid burned in her throat, causing her to squint her eyes as she forced herself to swallow.

By the time she had reached the bottom of the bottle the world was spinning around her, the tips of her fingers tingled and for some reason she could feel her eyes. Like feel them move around in her head, feel them jump over the dark countryside only to get caught on small lights shining through the blackness of the night. The alcohol seemed to make the edges of the Kim-shaped hole inside her blurry and less sharp, dampen the pain it created.

She didn't notice Zack approaching until he let his hand fall down heavy on her shoulder. “What are you doing here?” His confusion was clearly seeping through in his voice. With quickly fingers he took the empty bottle out of his hands. “Did you drink all of this?”

Trini didn't find the strength to use her mouth to answer. All her concentration went into grabbing onto the side of the wagon-roof, so she shrugged instead as her body swayed from one side to another.

“Let’s bring you home.”

Shaking her head a bit too fast and strong caused her to almost fall off the room.

“No.”, she managed to press out. Going home would very likely end in her mother finding her drunk or worse, crying and she couldn't allow that. Tears were already stinging in her eyes as she begged Zack. “Not home. Please.”

“Fine. I'll take you to mine.”

The worried expression that had appeared on Zack's face as she didn't respond with a snarky comment didn't disappear. On the contrary, his eyebrows seemed to furrow even more, as he helped her down the train-wagon and steadied her wobbly walk.

The gravel underneath her feet seemed to roll away as soon as she stepped her feet on it and Zack was forced to more or less carry her down the mountain towards the trailer park.

She didn't remember the entire way down, or when she had started to cry. But as her head hit a pillow on top of Zack's bed it was quickly stained with tears.

Trini tried to keep her sobbing down to avoid waking Zack's sleeping mother in the other room, but her body shook with every breath and it took her much too long to fall asleep.

 

She woke up early a few hours later. Her stomach was spinning and she quickly stepped over the sleeping Zack on the floor to run out of the trailer to empty her stomach in a bush a few feet behind the fence running around the park.

Somehow she made it back home with only two more stops to heave up nothing but bile and without her parents noticing she had been going.

Avoiding to look at anyone who could see that she had had a hard night by the dark circles around her eyes and the gray tone of her skin she kept to the shadows of the hallways in school and skipped lunch. She couldn't deal with seeing Kim and since she was well trained at being invisible she managed to get through the day without being seen by anyone she didn't want to be seen by.

 

One time, Kim almost caught her by standing around at her locker, looking around seemingly waiting for her. She looked about as shitty as Trini felt and her pale skin and tense posture made the knot that was still making her breathing hard ache with pain.

Her phone went ignored for the most part since Monday, but the continuous vibrations from incoming calls and texts were starting to give her a guilty conscience so she just turned the device off entirely.

 

Thursday was as gray as she felt and the rain that didn't stop falling seemed to mock her by reminding her of all the tears she had already shed since Monday. She skipped biology and the call her mother got from the school about her slacking seemed to be last straw that broke the camel's back. That night when she finally brought herself to go home and she dragged her feet through the front door, her mother unleashed a spate of words on her.

Trini felt so incredibly tired, that the usual inhibition she felt against yelling at her mother was lowered enough to create a loud fight between the two women.

Yet listening to her mother spat insults at her with a crimson and angrily-twisted face soon became too much for her and she fled from her house. The rain was still falling relentlessly from the sky and drew all the color from the town and landside, dipping everything into a sad, ugly gray.

Once again she fled to her favorite place in the mountains, to get away from the town and the people that caused her so much misery.

Not in the mood to run into anyone she didn't go to the spaceship nor the train-tracks, but instead ran down paths leading to long abandoned mines.

It dawned her that it hadn't been the smartest idea to enter the unsecured area after days of rain had soaked and loosened up the ground. With every one of her steps rocks and gravel seemed to come loose and roll down the steep mountain side.

After an especially wobbly step a groan seemed to go through the mountain and more and more small stones seemed hop down the mountain all around her. Until suddenly the ground underneath her seemed to disappear and pull her down with her. Too fast for her to react she was trapped in the middle of an avalanche of rocks and mud that ran down the mountain and Trini felt herself being thrown around like a ragdoll. Air was forced out of her lungs as sharp peaks and blunt edges cut through her skin and hit her body. She had long lost the feeling of where was up and were was down.

Loud splashes echoed over the rumbled and the taste of iron on her tongue was replaced with ice-cold water forcing its way into her mouth and she had to cough but she couldn't. She was still being thrown around, desperately she tried to shield her head with her arms. Sharp edges were still digging into her body everywhere and heavy weight kept her under water. Yet all Trini could feel was cold. It was so cold and she still couldn't breathe. But before she lost the last grip she had on reality and everything faded to black a noise echoed in her ear. The scream of a pterodactyl ripped through her eardrum even though Trini was still underwater and all she saw was pink and then... nothing.

 

 

Trini didn't know if only minutes had passes or hours, but when she recovered just a bit of consciousness she could breathe again. She was lying on her stomach, numerous sharp rocks were digging into various body parts, her skin was burning and everything hurt and was sore.

Cold hands flipped her and she felt coughs rip through her, shaking her body. Her eyes refused to open because her head felt like it would explode as she tried it. Her limps felt too heavy to move.

A female voice reached her ears and suddenly the pain in her insides overshadowed all of her physical pain. Kim. “We'll bring her to mine. It's the closest.”

Then the feeling of strong warm arms seeped through her drenched, cold clothing.

“She's so cold.” A hand touched her somewhere but she couldn't tell were. Her mind was too occupied by placing the voice. Billy. “And her lips are blue.”

She was pressed against a warm chest, which started to vibrate as whoever carried her started to talk. “Zack. Give me your jacket.” Definitely Jason. Her body had now started to shake beyond her control, she couldn't tell if it was from coldness or exhaustion.

Something was wrapped around her and the body that carried her started to move, but Trini felt herself slip away again and the pitch black nothing welcomed her with open arms while numbing the pain.

 

 

When Trini woke a while later, she was no longer surrounded by rocks, mud or water, but instead a warm, soft blanket. Her body was still freezing and constant shivers ran down her back.

A voice got through to her ears. Only a few feet away from her someone seemed to be talking on the phone Trini reasoned from only being able to hear one half of the conversation. Kim's voice was harsh as she spoke. “Yes. Trini is here... We found her. Yes she is okay now, but she was really cold... No, I won't bring her over. You are the reason she ran in the first place..” The person she had been talking to must have changed on the other side of the phone call because she continued softer. “Hello. Yes, she is okay. She is sleeping right now...Yes, I will take good care of her. Please tell June I didn't mean to sound so harsh. I'm.. just still processing everything... I will call again soon. Take care... Goodbye.”

 

Wondering why Kim had seemed to be talking to her mother or at least about her mother Trini made the first attempt to move but everything around her felt too heavy and forced a groan to escape from her mouth. She tried to open her eyes, but just the tiniest bit of brightness, made stars explode in her head again and she moaned pain.

Someone was next to her, she could tell by the way the soft underground she was lying on bend down slightly, and a voice asked worried: “Trini?”

“Too bright.” She croaked out, her throat almost too dry to reply.

The next second the light, wherever she was, was seemingly turned off since it went dark in front of her closed eyelids and then that someone was next to her again.

Trini tried to open her eyes again. It took her a few blinks and even then her eyes were barely half-way open, but she could finally look around to find out where she was. She didn't know the room. It was kept in white, with little to no personal things, like a guest room. She was lying in the bed on one side of the room, while Kim crouched on the free space of mattress next to her. From what Trini could make out in the dim lit room Kim had been crying, her eyes were puffy and streaks of tears finding their way had left stains on the dirt that seemed to cover her face or her entire body rather.

She tried to move but the weight of numerous blankets on top of her was too much for her still weak muscles. Kim seemed to notice her struggle and quickly pushed off few and placed in a bundle them next to her.

“What happened?” Her voice cracked again as she pushed herself up to be able to lean against the headboard.

Kim's bottom lip started to quiver and she seemed to try to find the right words as she opened and closed her mouth without any words coming out a few times.

A throbbing pain started to radiate from her forehead and she lifted her hand to feel over what must have been a big cut in her head, but was now thanks to her superhealing only a healing scar with a few bumps.

Flashes of memories started to run through her head. Too much rain, tumbling rocks with her in between, the river keeping her under water.

Next to her Kim had now started to cry again, she sniffled from time to time as her body was shaken with sobs. She looked so sad and broken, that Trini pushed away all the angry and confusing feelings that were still buzzing in her head, and pulled her arm slowly out from underneath the blanket. With her hand cupping one of Kim's cheeks and her thumb gently whipped away the tears that were still falling.

Kim's hand ghosted over hers for a second as if she feared she would pull away if she actually touched her. But Trini didn't have the strength left to pretend she didn't want to hold her hand. So her hand stayed put and Kim placed hers over it. “I almost lost you.”

Tears were now forming in her eyes as well, threatening to fall with every breath she took. In her ears, Kim's hurtful words resounded again, but she forced herself to push them down. “I'm still here.”

It took all the strength she had left, but she removed her hand from Kim's grip. Only to lift her blanket to invite Kim to join her under it.

Kim looked unsure for a moment, but then she slowly crawled next to her.

Carefully Kim took Trini's hand underneath the blanket and ran her thumb over her skin. She only noticed now that it felt like most of her body was wrapped in bandages.

 

They must have fallen asleep like that, because Trini woke up a few hours later after having a terrible dream about being thrown around in the river again. But after blinking away the terrible memories she discovered it hadn't been her dream that woke her. Kim was kicking in her sleep, her skin hot and covered with sweat feeling sticky against her own. Wet tears were glistening on her cheeks and she mumbled something that sounded a lot like: “Trini, no.”.

She had to shake Kim a few times before getting her to wake up and she watched how Kim's tired eyes looked so far away for a second before they blinked and locked with hers.

New tears were forming in her eyes as she cupped Trini's face. “You're still here. I thought you were...” Her voice was barely a whisper as she spoke and her words got too quiet to understand as she continued.

“Pssh.” Trini pulled her close ignoring her body screaming pain as she moved. “I'm still here.”

Kim hid her face in her neck, her lips moving against her skin as she mumbled more inaudible stuff.

Only as she placed a soft kiss on the top of her head, Kim seemed to relax and she stopped clinging to her as if she feared she could disappear the moment she let go.

 

A few hours later Trini woke up from another nap her body had insisted she took. Kim was no longer in her arms nor in the bed. She was now sitting on the floor underneath the window, a mug in her hands, from which she took a slip from time to time.

“Morning.”, she mumbled in her direction. No smile glistened in her eyes and Trini's heart ached as she realized just how much she missed the little smirks Kim used to give her. With her head she nodded in the direction of her bedside table on which she discovered a second mug.

Carefully she sat herself up, grabbed the mug and took a little sip. The warm liquid turned out to be hot cocoa and she hummed at the feeling of it running down her throat and warmed her from the inside out.

“Did I have a nightmare?” Kim's voice sounded so small and foreign that it took Trini a few seconds to realize that she had spoken.

She nodded and Kim responded by pulling a face. “I'm sorry.”

“What happened yesterday?” Trini put the mug back on the table and settled against the pillow.

“Yesterday?” Kim mirrored her movement and placed the mug next to her, but then crawled towards the bed on the floor. “You were gone for an entire day, Trini.” Once again tears were glistening in the eyes of the girl in front of her and threatened to break her heart the minute they fell. “I was... Everyone was so scared. You hadn't been picking up your phone for days. And you weren't in biology. Jason went by your house the next morning and your mother told him that you had left the night before and hadn't returned home. She had thought you had spent the night at one of our places, but you were nowhere to be found. Not even in the ship. And everyone started to get really worried when Alpha said that your vitals had been weird last night and he was only getting a faint signal. We looked everywhere for you.” Her voice trembled as she spoke.

“How did you find me?”

Kim snorted. “Believe it or not. Amanda.”

“What?”

“She saw you run into the mountains Thursday night. Your mother called everyone from school and when she reached Amanda she told her that. We went to look for you in the mountains after. Zack found you. He said that...” She had to take a few deep breathes to stop a sob from bubbling out of her. “He said that half of your body was still in the river and he pulled you out. You were completely covered in cuts and bruises like you had fallen off a cliff.”

“Avalanche.”

Kim's eyes widened in shock. “Any normal human would have been dead.”

“Good that I am not a normal human then.” She tried to joke, but it didn't work.

“Your family was really worried. I called your parents after we had found you.”

The conversation had taken a lot energy and she only nodded. For the first time she pushed the blankets away to take in the extent of damage the avalanche had had on her body. A lot of smaller wounds had already healed, only faint scars reminding her of their existence, but big gashes on her stomach and legs hadn't closed completely and told of the seriousness of her accident.

When Trini announced she wanted to go home now, Kim retrieved her clothing, but they were all ripped and covered in dirt. Kim then brought her a few of her old things, so Trini could get dressed and wouldn't freeze on the way over.

They were quiet on the drive over to Trini's house, but Kim seemed to watch her more than she actually watched the room as she drove.

Her mother actually thanked Kim for finding her and for taking care of her. Trini even believed that she saw a small smile on her face as she bit her farewell.

 

 

The next week it felt like something had shifted in their group, making the air thick and almost unbreathable. Trini was always met with worried looks and carefully chosen words which annoyed her to a great extent. Kim and she were still dancing around each other, not looking at the other except for a few seconds and definitely no real talk. Trini could feel that the boys hated the situation, but Trini was relieved that none of them pushed any of them to tell them what had happened. They resumed training as well and Jason took mercy in her and didn't make her fight Kim.

Missing Kim started to become her new normal. Her body ached for having the girl close again, to see her eyes gleam when she made her laugh or to see her lips curve into a smirk when she teased Trini.

 

This went on for a week, until the next Monday, when they were all sitting together at lunch and everything went downhill again.

Trini was currently halfheartedly poking around in her salad while watching Kim and Jason carry their trays towards their table, as someone bumped into Kim. Instead of just shrugging it off like Trini expected her to the girl collapsed and fell to the floor like a house of cards.

Frozen in place, her fork still lifted to jam it into the salad again, she watched how people started to yell around Kim and how Jason just threw his tray away and kneeled down beside her. As he picked her up from the floor, her head fell back and revealed fluttering eyes and blood running down her face.

Trini's eyes just helplessly followed Jason as the boy carried the still unconscious girl in his arms out of the dining hall.

Only Billy pulling on her sleeve made her move. His lips were moving, but the sound wasn't reaching her ears.

“What?” She threw away her fork and turned to face him completely.

“Let's go.” His voice was so full of desperation and to her surprise he just took ahold of her hand to pull her up and down the hallway in which Jason had disappeared.

She felt numb stumbling after the boy. Thoughts buzzing around in her head again, too fast to hold onto one. Voices were yelling, but she wasn't sure if they were just in her head or if they were coming from the people around them.

Billy had guided her to the nurses’ office and they stood helplessly in the doorway as the watched the nurse swarm around the room until she stopped next to Kim to press gauzes against the still bleeding side of her head.

Jason mumbled to his friends, that she had already called the ambulance.  
Just the nurse wanted to push them out of the room, to make them leave Trini felt herself be able to move again.

Hell-bent on convincing the nurse of letting her stay with Kim, she ripped her glance away from the girl and stared at the nurse.

The woman seemed somehow familiar, but before she could try to talk her into letting her stay the nurse frowned. “Trini?”

“Yes?” And then Trini recognized her as the woman from all those years ago at her old school who took care of her when she had her impression.

The nurse was still stepping towards them, her arms motioning for them to get out. She looked like she was about to say something, but Trini interrupted her.

“Do you remember when I had my impression?”

“How could I forget? The only one who ever fell on the floor on my watch.”

Trini wanted to smile at the friendly face of the woman who was looking like she was wallowing in memories, but she just couldn't. The knot in her chest that pressed on her heart and lungs ever since she and Kim had started to fight was aching again, seemingly growing by the minute.

Shaking off the pain she just points to Kim. “It's her. She's _her_.”

The nurse seemed to understand immediately. “You can stay. The rest out. Now.”  
Her friends gave her a few supporting nods, before the door was closed in their faces and Trini hurried to Kim's side.

With shaking fingers she took her hand and pressed soft kisses against the back of her head, while mumbling over and over again: “Please be okay. Please be okay.”

The girl looked pale on the bed. Her eye-sockets seemed hollow and bloodstained gauze was still lying on her forehead, blood sticking to her skin and hair.

Then the paramedics arrived and they took Kim away, who looked so small on the stretcher that it took all in Trini to not run after the ambulance after they refused to allow her to come with.

But while she was still watching the ambulance disappear down the road, Jason appeared next to her and offered to drive all of them to the hospital.

 

 

The four of them wandered around in the waiting area of the hospital, throwing angry glances at every doctor who refused to give them any information about Kim, because they weren't family. Not even when Zack kept on pointing towards her, as she sat shrunken down on an uncomfortable chair, and yelled that she was Kim's soulmate no one wanted to tell them anything.

As Kim's parents showed up, someone must have called them, both of their faces twisted in worry, bombarding them with questions. Trini felt herself be pulled into a bone-crushing hug by Kim's mother and both women refused to let go off each other for the next hour that passed without any updates.

Trini was still clinging to her as a tall figure walked through the entrance of the waiting area, which looked more and more like her own mother with every step she took towards them. As a light falling in from a window brightened up her face and revealed that it was indeed her mother, walking towards them with a stone cold face as her eyes flickered between her and Kim's mother.

She hadn't expected her to show up here, so she untangled herself from Kim's mother to face her own.

“What are you doing here?” Trini pulled her away from the waiting area into an empty hallway.

“The school called, that you skipped your classes after lunch. But the person calling me seemed to be very talkative as they told me that your friend had fainting during lunch and had been rushed to the hospital and that they figured since you and all your friends were missing, that you were all here.”

Trini didn't answer. She only stared up to her, waiting for her to yell at her for leaving school. But the yelling never came, instead her face lost some of its hardness.

“I have never understood you. You were always so different.” Her mother took a deep breath, before she continued. “I am sorry for not being there for you, Trini. For not being someone you can talk to about what was happening in your life. I am sorry for not being a good mother to you. I am not asking you for forgiveness and I can't say that I am comfortable with your life-style.”

Trini could see how her mother was fighting with herself to find the right words, but over the countless time her mother opened her mouth only to close it without saying anything, Trini could see that she was really trying.

“But you are my daughter. And if you like this girl. Kim... I can see how you care about her. If you like her-”

She interrupted her mother. “Mom. I don't just like her. She is her. She is my...” The word took longer than usual to come over her lips. “She is my soulmate.”

Her mother’s face fell slightly, but Trini was more occupied by the tears that were now rolling silently down her face. Fear of what was happening to Kim taking over her, taking over everything she was. “I'm scared.”

“Mija.” And then Trini felt two strong arms wrap around her and she allowed herself to break in her mother's arms. Trini couldn't remember the last time she had hugged her. A soft kiss was placed on her forehead. “I will always love you Trini, you hear me?I will try. For you and Kim.”

After she had calmed down a bit, she introduced her mother to Kim's parents and together they sat around staring holes in the ground waiting for an update on Kim while her mother never let go off her hand.

 

It took too long until finally a doctor took mercy on them and told them that Kim was going to be fine. She had had very low blood sugar and seemed very exhausted as she was brought in. The fall to the school-floor had caused a concussion and a nasty looking gash on the back of her head, but her scans had shown that she had no brain-bleeds and the cut had been stitched up. Kim was sleeping right now and that they had put her on a drip to supply her with fluids and nutrients.

As six people started to storm down the hallway towards Kim's room, the doctor insisted on not too many visitors and Kim's parents promised them to get Trini and her friends as soon as Kim woke up.

As Kim's parents disappeared through a door, Trini finally allowed herself to realize that her Kim was going to be okay. Letting go of her mother's hand she threw herself at her friends and pulled all of them into a group-hug.

When they separated after a while, Trini remained in Jason's arm as a warm hand fell on her back.

Her mother was standing next to her. “I'm gonna go home and tell your brothers and father what happened. They were all really worried.”

“You are not gonna make me come with you?”, Trini asked truly surprised.

Her mother shook her hand, a small smile playing around the corners of her lips. “No. I want to, yes. But Kim... She needs you. Just please call later, okay?”

She nodded and her mother cupped her cheek for a moment before disappearing down the hallway she had emerged from.

 

Kim woke up a little while later and her parents allowed her to see her after they had made sure that she was alright.

But the moment Trini stepped through the door and Kim's eyes fell on her, she started to cry. “No.” Kim shook her head in desperation. “No, Jason. I need Jason.”

Disappointment spread through her, and somehow everything around her felt like she was looking at it through a wall of fog, separating her from the rest of the world.

She went to get Jason, and watched through the small window in the door as they talked. Jason kept nodding or shaking his head and then he took her hand as another wave of sobs washed over her.

Outside in the hallway, Trini's disappointment slowly started to turn into anger. Anger against herself for not being the person Kim would trust with whatever she was telling Jason in that moment.

She watched Jason place a kiss on Kim's forehead, before squeezing her hand a last them and then exiting the room. He made her walk into the room again, with a single glare.

Yet, she only barely made it through the door until her feet refused to walk further into the room.

“Trini. I need to tell you something.” Kim's voice was weak and breaking and Trini feared for a moment that it could become silent with the next crack.

But then something in Kim seemed to break and the words only seemed to bubble out of her. She told her everything. That she had sent a naked picture of Amanda to Ty. That Ty then had called her the meanest girl he had ever met. That that was the reason she had punched him and that he had been right. That Kim had truly been a horrible person back then, her sending that picture of Amanda had only been proof of that. And then Kim kept insisting on trying to tell Trini, but she couldn't. Not after hearing how she had suffered under actions of people, of bullies just like her.

 

“I couldn't tell you, because I was scared of how you would react. And that day I said all those mean things to you, I only said that to avoid having to tell you everything. When I said I couldn't be with someone like you.. I meant that I wasn't deserving enough of someone like you. Not when I am this terrible person and you.. You are just-”

With every word she spoke the knot in her chest seemed to tighten and soon enough it was too much. As she listened to that last part of Kim feeling like she wasn't good enough for her panic swept over her and she couldn't breathe in the small hospital room anymore.

She turned on her heel and fled from Kim's sight. Her sobs followed her as she ran into the hallway and just let herself slide down against the wall next to Kim's room.

The next moment Jason was next to her on the floor and wrapped her arm around her shoulders.

Kim's sobs were still swashing out of the door of her room and suddenly the storm of feelings she felt didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered to her anymore. Nothing except for Kim.

She wiggled herself free from Jason and ran back into the room.

The visual of Kim lying in that hospital bed, her face buried in Zack's chest while Billy held her hand made her entire body ache. She hadn't noticed her yet. But the boys moved again as Trini stepped closer.

Kim's lips only parted, mouthing her name silently, pleading almost.

Trini stormed to her and just kisses her, with chopped lips which tasted of salty tears and snot. But she didn't care. She kissed her and tried to pour everything she felt in it and hoped, prayed that Kim understand what she was trying to say. “I... I need time to think, but I will be back. I promise.” and then Trini kissed her again and ran before Kim could kiss her back. She ran out of the room and out of the hospital, but then she stopped. Tired of running so far that she lost sight of the way back, she just sank down on a bench where she could watch the entrance of the ER.

The fresh air of the day turning into night seemed to crystalize a few thoughts out of the mush that had once been her brain. She couldn't quiet grasp how Kim, her Kim, could do something like she had done to Amanda and Ty. God, she was angry at her for her actions and angry at herself for not giving Kim the feeling that she couldn't trust her with telling her this.

 

Trini didn't remember how she got home that day. All she knew was that when she woke up the next morning everything inside her hurt again. The knot in her chest still holding her tight making her breathing hard and her bones ache.

She didn't move for hours, only watching the shadows on her ceiling of the world outside wander slowly, very grateful for her family not making her go to school.

At one point her mother came into her room, placed a glass of water in her hand and forced her to take a few sips, before she allowed her to put it down.

She seemed to watch her as Trini swallowed, her throat complaining about the cold liquid stinging her insides. Then her mother wordlessly grabbed underneath her mattress and pulled a gray plastic figure out only to place it on the pillow next to her before she left again.

Slowly she felt her hand move and soon enough her fingers were wrapping around the cool plastic of the dinosaur.

As she felt the stinging of tears in her eyes again, she wondered how it was possible that she even had tears left to cry. All she could do was stroke over the dinosaur and follow its wings with her finger.

On their own, her legs started to move and made her leave her bed. Quickly she pulled over some clothes before walking downstairs, finding her mother rummaging around in the kitchen.

As she realized that Trini was standing behind her, the dinosaur still clenched in her fist she stopped whatever she was doing. “Do you want to go back to the hospital?”

Trini must have had managed to knot, because a few minutes later they were in her mother's car and drove to the hospital, where she dropped her off, reminding her to call her when she needed to be picked up again.

 

As Trini entered her room she could see that some color had seemed too returned to Kim's cheeks, making her almost glow against the rest of the white room.

With steady steps she walked up to her and placed the dinosaur in her hands. “It has always been you. The thought of you was the thing that brought me through life. But you were just that. A thought. Something I had imagined. But then suddenly you were there and you became.. everything. You were nothing like I had dreamt you to be. You aren't the perfect soulmate I had thought up for myself. You are so much more and you have flaws and quirks and...”

Hurt spread over Kim's face and Trini tried to hurry to get to the point she was trying got make.

“And I only partly ran because of your mistake. Because it was just that. A mistake. No, I ran because the soulmate in my head didn't make mistakes. But you do. It made you real. And I have to be honest, it scared the living shit out of me.”

She had to wipe away a few tears before she could continue. “I am sorry for running, especially because you said you were scared of me doing that.”

Trini had avoided to look at Kim during her confession, but now she finally met her eyes again. As she saw the tiny smile playing around the corners of Kim's lips, she felt her heart skip a beat, which made her realize that the knot in her chest had disappeared.

Kim lifted the blanket for her and gestured for her to join her, just like she had a few days ago after her avalanche incident.

 

That was how Trini found herself still lying there a few hours later, Kim nestled against her chest with her arm around her shoulders and just listened to her steady breaths as Kim's mother walked in.

“They are releasing her. Do you want to come with us?” Trini nodded tired and watched how the woman gave her a gently smile and left the room again, mumbling about trying to find Kim's clothing.

She woke Kim gently and watched how she slowly stirred in her arms, only to look panicked for moment. Until her eyes found Trini's and she relaxed again. “I thought you had left.”

“I'm not leaving.”

At her answer Kim flinched and her hand touched the bandaid still covering her side of her head.

Carefully Trini pealed it back, just enough to take a look at her wound, which was practically closing and healing right in front of her eyes.

“It's healing. Quickly.” Trini reassured her, not being able to hide her amusement completely. To her surprise she then noticed that the knot in her chest had disappeared and she could breathe freely again. Instead a warm feeling spread through hers as she watched how Kim buried her face in her hands while laughing.

“How am I gonna explain that to my parents if they want to look at it? Or a doctor for that matter?”

 

A little while later the girls found themselves, tangled up in each other on the couch in Kim's living room. Her parents were insisting that they wouldn't do anything wild, but allowed Trini to stay because her daughter was feeling much better since she and Trini had made up.

Lying here next to Kim, a blanket over them, their legs intertwined, their heads resting on the backrest facing each other, Trini noticed that she had stopped caring about Kim's parents being around. All she cared about in that moment was that her Kim was feeling better and how warm her hand in her own felt.

Occasionally she pressed a peck on the back of Kim's head to remind her that she was still here.

Kim had her eyes closed, a content smile on her lips. “Trini?”

“Yes?”

“I'm so happy that you are here.” The girl then opened her eyes and locked them with Trini's. “But I am still scared, that you are gonna leave again, because we still don't really know each other.”

“Then let's get to know each other. Like completely.” Trini only tightened her grip on Kim's hand. “Maybe start a real relationship. Not that I'm saying that what we had wasn't real. But you know.. Maybe we shouldn't just trust that our impressions. Maybe we should work that this.. that we work.” She knew that she was just rambling now.  
Kim let out an relieved sigh as she pulled Trini in for a short but sweet kiss. “You're cute. And smart. I think that's a good idea.”

Somehow Trini was starting to get nervous as she thought about what she was about to ask Kim, even though they were already so close and not just in the physical way.

“So...”

“So what?” Kim smirked and Trini knew that Kim knew exactly what she was trying to say.

“So will you go on a date with me? To properly get to know each other. To maybe talk about other things than saving the world and soulmate-impressions.

“Depends on two things.”

“Which two things?”

“First.. I don't think my parents will allow me to go anywhere in the next time soon.”  
Trini grinned, as an idea already formed in her head. “Let me take care of that. Second?”

“Second... We get to make out. A lot. Even if it's our first real date.”

Amazed by Kim, Trini giggled and leaned forward to kiss her. “Deal.”

Kim's parents insisted for their kid to stay home for the rest of the week to recover, both of them not knowing that Kim's superpowers had healed her completely already. But since they allowed Trini and the rest of their friends to come over after school no one really minded.

 

One afternoon after school, they all sat around the living room, and told Kim about their day in school and what she had missed so far.

The smiles on her friends faces as they watched Trini and Kim huddled up together caused a warm feeling to spread through Trini's insides.

“Jason thought it was gonna be weird with you two being together at first. But seeing you apart felt even weirder.” Billy scratched his head, while the other two boys nodded.

“Good to see you two back together again.” Jason smiled.

Zack looked like he wanted to say something as well, but as Trini watched the smirk on his face grew she threw a pillow in his direction to warn him. “Don't say out loud what you are thinking right now. I really don't feel like getting up.”

He just lifted his arms in defense. “Rude. All I wanted to say was the world is right again, with you two lovebirds back together. Okay, maybe not in this harmless way of saying it, but still.”

The conversation of the boys then drifted to discussion new training tactics as Kim turned to Trini. “I hate to admit it, but Zack's right. My world feels whole again.” The girl then nestled against Trini and sighed in content.

 

 

The next Friday, Trini felt like she was about to die from nervousness. With the help of her friends and Kim's parents she had come up with a first date. Since Kim had been annoying her parents all week that she wasn't allowed to leave the house, her mother had agreed to take her grocery shopping, while her father let Trini in the house so she could prepare what she had planned. Since Kim was still basically on bedrest, Kim's parents had only agreed that they could have a calm date at their place. Trini would prepare food while Kim and her mother were gone and after they came back, her parents would leave to allow Trini and Kim to enjoy their evening.

 

Kim's mother had texted her just before they had arrived back at the house so Trini could hide, while Kim and her mother put away what they had bought. The food she had prepared was ready in the stove to keep it warm, while Trini stood in the living room she had decorated with chains of lights, flowers in a vase in her sweaty hands.

“What smells so good?”, she heard Kim comment from the other room and a smile crept on her lips.

“Maybe you should check the living room.” The voice of Kim's mother caused Trini's heart to race, meant it that Kim would enter the room soon and she was still nervous about her liking what she had planned.

And then she walked into the living room and Trini forgot how to breathe. Kim wore sweats, a tank top and one of Trini's flannels, with its sleeves rolled up. Her hair was messy and strands stood in every direction and Trini couldn't believe how someone as beautiful Kim could possibly like her.

Kim's surprised expression as she saw Trini with her flowers and the entire room lit in chains of light quickly changed into a slightly flushed face with a shy smile playing around the corners of her mouth.

Trini could only dumbfound extent her arm to hold out the flowers. “For you.”

With a few slow steps Kim was in front of her, carefully taking the vase with both hands. She brought it up to her face and smelled the flowers as a pedal tickled her and she scrunched her nose. In that moment Trini was completely and utterly sure that her impression brought the most amazing thing ever into her life and she knew that she would never regret anything from her past ever. Cause it had brought her to this moment. To her Kim.

“What is this?” Kim's soft voice made her focus on her again.

“The date we've been talking about. Surprise.” She smiled shyly.

In that moment Kim's parents called from the hallway. “Have fun girls. Don't do anything to wild.” Then the door fell shut behind them and they were alone.

“They helped you set this up?” She put the flowers down on the nearest shelf.

“Yup. The boys helped too. They helped me brainstorm a bit.”

“You needed help coming up with a date-idea?” Kim's expression was much too smug to her liking.

“It's not my fault my brain stops working properly the moment I think about your stupid face.” This caused Kim to blush deeply and Trini mentally high-fives herself for her honesty.

She then felt herself being pulled into a kiss that made her knees weak and her skin tingle. “So what's the plan?”

Blinking stunned, she needed a few moments to collect herself before being able to answer. “First food. Then your favorite movie and after that.. We'll see.” She tried to wink at Kim, but unfortunately she was still too brainless after kissing her, it probably more looked like she had something in her eye.

“I know it’s not the most original idea, but I had to improvise with you still being on... well kinda... housearrest.”

“Ah. Pssh.” Kim shook her head quickly and as she looked back at Trini her eyes seemed to glow with joy. “It's perfect.”

 

After eating too much food and watching a movie with eating even more snacks, Trini and Kim sat on the couch, entangled into each other like usual, when Kim seemed to remember something that made her get up, so fast that neither had time to untangle from each other and they both fell off the couch.

Laughing they got up again while Kim instructed her to wait for moment.

Running out of the room, Trini heard her rummage around in the kitchen for a moment, before she came back. “I found this today. It's for you... Well not directly for you.. But here.” She held out something for her and Trini carefully took it. The object was cold in her hands and she recognized it as an English children's book.

“I thought that maybe I could read it to your brothers at one point.”

“I think they would like that very much.” Happiness spread through her as she realized that Kim was no longer in this just because of her impression, but for all of her. For Trini herself and all that that came with her. That included her family.

 

Later they were lying in Kim's bed, Trini in Kim's lab, as Trini inspected the spot were Kim had hit her head a while back. Her hair had been shaved by the doctor stitching her up, but the wound had disappeared completely, not even a scar remained. All the while a topless Kim started to press butterfly kisses along Trini's shoulders, her fingers slipped underneath Trini's shirt causing goosebumps to erupt on her skin where her fingers ghosted over it.

“Can you please take your top off?”

“You remember that your parents said not too wild?”

“You really think about that when I am topless and kissing you?” Kim grinned at her.

“Sorry.” Trini shook her head.

“I know you don't want to do anything that might anger my parents. But they don't know that I am completely fine. Which you just saw with your own eyes. So why don't you relax and..” A smirk appeared on her face and Kim flipped them over. Trini didn't know how she did it, but Kim ended up in her lab now, her hands grabbing the hem of her shirt.

Defeated, but pleased she allowed Kim to take of her shirt which landed on the floor the second Kim's mouth collided with hers. Strong hands wandered in her hair as she placed hers on Kim's bare waist.

“Now can we please enjoy the fact that we are all alone, but healthy and damn horny teenagers with superpowers?”

“Well if you put it like that.” Trini grinned back at Kim as her hands wandered up Kim's back to ghost along the seam of her bra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think.. :D
> 
> If you have any suggestions or questions or just want to yell at me, come talk to me on tumblr. http://lilucath.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> UPDATE: The second part in the works.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who yelled at me to finally finish it and to Sara for dealing with my terrible grammar. 
> 
> If you have any suggestions or questions or just want to yell at me, come talk to me on tumblr. http://lilucath.tumblr.com


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